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R489.  L76  B57  The  personal  life  of 


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Columbia  ®nibergitp 

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College  of  ^fjpgiciang  anb  burgeons; 

Hibrarp 


Purchased  from  the  fund 
established  in  memory  of 

WILLIAM  HENRY  DRAPER 
1830-1901.     P.  AND  S. '55 

AND    OF   HIS    SON 

WILLIAM  KINNICUTT  DRAPER 
1863-1926.     P.  AND  S. '88 


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in  2010  with  funding  from 

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(^(uZJi 


The  Personal  Life 

OF 

Oavid  Livingstone 

LL.D.,  D.C.L. 


CHIEFLY  FROM  HIS  UNPUBLISHED 
JOURNALS  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 
IN  THE  POSSESSION  OF  HIS  FAMILY 


BY 

W.  GARDEN   BLAIKIE,  D.D.,  LLD« 

Author  e/''*' Heroes  o/  Israel"  etc. 


FLEMING   H.   REVELL   COMPANY 
New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literaiurs 


PREFACE. 


The  purpose  of  this  work  is  to  make  the  world  better  acquainted 
with  the  character  of  Livingstone.  His  discoveries  and  researches 
have  been  given  to  the  public  in  his  own  books,  but  his  modesty 
led  him  to  say  little  in  these  of  himself,  and  those  who  knew  him 
best  feel  that  little  is  known  of  the  strength  of  his  affections,  the 
depth  and  purity  of  his  devotion,  or  the  intensity  of  his  aspirations 
as  a  Christian  missionary.  The  growth  of  his  character  and  the 
providential  shaping  of  his  career  are  also  matters  of  remarkable 
interest,  of  which  not  much  has  yet  been  made  known. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  in  this  volume,  likewise,  to  present  a 
more  complete  history  of  his  life  than  has  yet  appeared.  Many 
chapters  of  it  are  opened  up  of  which  the  public  have  hitherto 
known  little  or  nothing.  It  has  not  been  deemed  necessary  to 
dwell  on  events  recorded  in  his  published  Travels,  except  for  the 
purpose  of  connecting  the  narrative  and  making  it  complete. 
Even  on  these,  however,  it  has  been  found  that  not  a  little  new 
light  and  color  may  be  thrown  from  his  correspondence  with  his 
friends  and  his  unpublished  Journals. 

Much  pains  has  been  taken  to  show  the  unity  and  symmetry  of 
his  character.  As  a  man,  a  Christian,  a  missionary,  a  philanthro- 
pist, and  a  scientist,  Livingstone  ranks  with  the  greatest  of  our 
race,  and  shows  the  minimum  of  infirmity  in  connection  with  the 
maximum  of  goodness.  Nothing  can  be  more  telling  than  his  life 
as  an  evidence  of  the  truth  and  power  of  Christianity,  as  a  plea  for 
Christian  Missions  and  civilization,  or  as  a  demonstration  of  the 
true  connection  between  religion  and  science. 

So  many  friends  have  helped  in  this  book  that  it  is  impossible 
to  thank  all  in  a  preface.  Most  of  them  are  named  in  the  body 
of  the  work.    Special  acknowledgments,  however,  are  due  to  the 

(iii) 


iv  PREFACE, 

more  immediate  members  of  Dr.  Livingstone's  family,  at  whose 
request  the  work  was  undertaken ;  also  to  his  sisters,  the  Misses 
Livingstone,  of  Hamilton,  to  Mr.  Young,  of  Kelley,  to  the  vener- 
able Dr.  Moffat,  and  Mrs.  Vavasseur,  his  daughter.  The  use  of 
valuable  collections  of  letters  has  been  given  by  the  following  (in 
addition  to  the  friends  already  named) :  The  Directors  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society;  Dr.  Kisdon  Bennett;  Rev.  G.  D- 
Watt;  Rev.  Joseph  Moore;  Rev.  W.  Thompson,  Cape  Town;  J. 
B.  Braithwaite,  Esq. ;  representatives  of  the  late  Sir  R.  I.  Murchi- 
son,  Bart.,  and  of  the  late  Sir  Thomas  Maclear;  Rev.  Horace 
Waller,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb,  of  Newstead  Abbey,  Mr.  F.  Fitch, 
of  London,  Rev.  Dr.  Stewart,  of  Lovedale,  and  Senhor  Nunes,  of 
Quilimane.  Other  friends  have  forwarded  letters  of  less  impor- 
tance. Some  of  the  letters  have  reached  the  hands  of  the  writer 
after  the  completion  of  the  book,  and  have  therefore  been  used  but 
sparingly. 

The  recovery  of  an  important  private  journal  of  Dr.  Livingstone, 
which  had  been  lost  at  the  time  when  the  Missionary  Travels  was> 
published,  has  thrown  much  new  light  on  the  part  of  his  life 
immediately  preceding  his  first  great  journey. 

In  the  spelling  of  African  proper  names.  Dr.  Moffat  has  given 
valuable  help.  Usually  Livingstone's  own  spelling  has  been 
followed. 

A  Map  has  been  specially  prepared,  in  which  the  geographical 
references  in  the  volume  are  shown,  which  will  enable  the  reader 
to  follow  Livingstone's  movements  from  place  to  place. 

With  so  much  material,  it  would  have  been  easier  to  write  a  life 
in  two  volumes  than  in  one;  but  for  obvious  reasons  it  has  been 
deemed  desirable  to  restrict  it  to  the  present  limits.  The  author 
could  wish  for  no  higher  honor  than  to  have  his  name  associated 
with  that  of  Livingstone,  and  can  desire  no  greater  pleasure  than 
that  of  conveying  to  other  minds  the  impressions  that  have  been 
left  on  his  own. 

W.  G.  BLAIKIE. 

Edinburgh,  9  Palmerston  Road. 

1880 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  YEARS. 
A.D.  1813-1836. 

PAGB 

Ulva — The  Livingstones — Traditions  of  Ulva  life — The  "  Baughting- 
time" — '*  Kirsty's  Rock" — Removal  of  Livingstone's  grandfather  to 
Blantyre — Highland  blood — Neil  Livingstone — His  marriage  to  Agnes 
Hunter — Her  grandfather  and  father — Monument  to  Neil  and  Agnes 
Livingstone  in  Hamilton  Cemetery — David  Livingstone  bom  19th 
March,  1813 — Boyhood — At  home — In  school — David  goes  into  Blan- 
tyre Mill — First  earnings — Night-school — His  habits  of  reading — Nat- 
ural-history expeditions — Great  spiritual  changes  in  his  twentieth  year — 
Dick's  Philosophy  of  a  Future  State — He  resolves  to  be  a  missionary — 
Influence  of  occupation  at  Blantyre — Sympathy  with  the  people — Thomas 
Burke  and  David  Hogg — Practical  character  of  his  religion 17 

CHAPTER   II. 

MISSIONARY   PREPARATION. 
A.D.  1836-1840. 

His  desire  to  be  a  missionary  to  China — Medical  missions — He  studies  at 
Glasgow — Classmates  and  teachers — He  applies  to  London  Missionary 
Society — His  ideas  of  mission-work — He  is  accepted  provisionally — He 
goes  to  London — to  Ongar — Reminiscences  by  Rev.  Joseph  Moore — by 
Mrs.  Gilbert — by  Rev.  Isaac  Taylor — Nearly  rejected  by  the  Directors 
— Returns  to  Ongar — to  London — Letter  to  his  sister — Reminiscences 
by  Dr.  Risdon  Bennett — Promise  to  Professor  Owen — Impression  of  his 
character  on  his  friends  and  fellow-students — Rev.  R.  Moffat  in  England 
— Livingstone  interested — Could  not  be  sent  to  China — Is  appointed  to 
Africa — Providential  links  in  his  history — Illness — Last  visits  to  his 
home — Receives  Medical  diploma — Parts  from  his  family 34 

CHAPTER    III. 

FIRST   TWO   YEARS   IN   AFRICA. 
A.D.  1842-1843. 

His  ordination — Voyage  out — At  Rio  de  Janeiro — At  the  Cape — He  pro- 
ceeds to  Kuruman — Letters — ^Journey  of  700  miles  to  Bechuana  country 

(v) 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

— Selection  cf  site  for  new  station — Second  excursion  to  Bechuana 
country — Letter  to  his  sister — Influence  with  chiefs — Bubi — Construc- 
tion of  a  water-dam — Sekomi — Woman  seized  by  a  lion — The  Bakaa — 
Sebehwe — Letter  to  Dr.  Risdon  Bennett — Detention  at  Kuruman — He 
visits  Sebehwe's  village — Bakhatlas — Sechele,  chief  of  Bak wains — Liv- 
ingstone translates  hymns — Travels  400  miles  on  oxback — Returns  to 
Kuruman — Is  authorized  to  font!  new  station — Receives  contributions 
for  native  missionary — Letters  to  Directors  on  their  Mission  policy — He 
goes  to  new  station — Fellow-travelers — Purchase  of  site — Letter  to  Dr, 
Bennett — Desiccation  of  South  Africa — Death  of  a  servant,  Sehamy — 
Letter  to  his  parents 63 

CHAPTER  IV 

FIRST   TWO   STATIONS — MABOTSA   AND   CHONUANE. 
A.D.  1843-1847. 

Description  of  Mabotsa — A  favorite  hymn — General  reading — Mabotsa 
infested  with  lions — Livingstone's  encounter — The  native  deacon  who 
saved  him — His  Sunday-school — Marriage  to  Mary  Moffat — Work  at 
Mabotsa —  Proposed  institution  for  training  native  agents — Letter  to  his 
mother — Trouble  at  Mabotsa — Noble  sacrifice  of  Livingstone — Goes  to 
Sechele  and  the  Bakwains — New  station  at  Chonuane — Interest  shown 
by  Sechele — Journeys  eastward — The  Boers  and  the  Transvaal — Their 
occupation  of  the  country,  and  treatment  of  the  natives — Work  among 
the  Bakwains — Livingstone's  desire  to  move  on — Theological  conflict  at 
home — His  view  of  it — His  scientific*  labors  and  miscellaneous  employ- 
ments       81 

CHAPTER  V. 

THIRD   STATION — KOLOBENG. 
A.D.  1847-1852. 

Want  of  rain  at  Chonuane — Removal  to  Kolobeng — House-building  and 
public  works — Hopeful  prospects — Letters  to  Mr.  Watt,  his  sister,  and 
Dr.  Bennett — The  church  at  Kolobeng — Pure  communion — Conversion 
of  Sechele — Letter  from  his  brother  Charles — His  history — Livingstone's 
relations  with  the  Boers — He  cannot  get  native  teachers  planted  in  the 
east — Resolves  to  explore  northward — Extracts  from  Journal — Scarcity 
of  water — Wild  animals  and  other  risks — Custom-house  robberies  and 
annoyances — Visit  from  Secretary  of  London  Missionary  Society — Mani- 
fold employments  of  Livingstone — Studies  in  Sichuana — Plis  reflection 
on  this  period  of  his  life  while  detained  at  Manyuema  in  1870  ....    100 


CONTENTS,  vii 

CHAPTER   VI. 

KOLOBENG  continued — LAKE  'ngami. 
A.D.  184§-i852. 

PAGB 

Koboleng  failing  through  drought — Sebituane's  country  and  the  Lake 
'Ngami — Livingstone  sets  out  with  Messrs.  Oswell  and  Murray — Rivers 
Zoiiga  and  Tamanak'le — Old  ideas  of  the  interior  revolutionized — En- 
thusiasm of  Livingstone — Discovers  Lake  'Ngami — Obliged  to  return — 
Prize  from  Royal  Geographical  Society — Second  expedition  to  the  lake, 
with  wife  and  children — Children  attacked  by  fever — Again  obliged  to 
return — Conviction  as  to  healthier  spot  beyond — Idea  of  finding  passage 
to  sea  either  west  or  east — Birth  and  death  of  a  child — Family  visits 
Kuruman — Third  expedition,  again  with  family — He  hopes  to  find  a 
new  locality — Perils  of  the  journey — He  reaches  Sebituane — The  ChiePs 
illness  and  death — Distress  of  Livingstone — Mr.  Oswell  and  he  go  on  to 
Linyanti — Discovery  of  the  Upper  Zambesi — No  locality  found  for  set- 
tlement— More  extended  journey  necessary — He  returns — Birth  of  Os- 
well Livingstone — Crisis  in  Livingstone's  life — His  guiding  principles — 
New  plans — The  Makololo  begin  to  practice  slave-trade — New  thoughts 
about  commerce — Letters  to  Directors — The  Bakwains — Pros  and  cons 
of  his  new  plan — His  unabated  missionary  zeal — He  goes  with  his  family 
to  the  Cape — His  literary  activity 114 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FKOM   THE   CAPE  TO   LINYANTI. 
A.D.  1852-1853. 

Unfavorable  feeling  at  Cape  Town — Departure  of  Mrs.  Livingstone  and 
children — Livingstone's  detention  and  difficulties — Letter  to  his  wife — 
to  Agnes — Occupations  at  Cape  Town — The  Astronomer- Royal — Living- 
stone leaves  the  Cape  and  reaches  Kuruman — Destruction  of  Kolobeng 
by  the  Boers — Letters  to  his  wife  and  Rev.  J.  Moore — His  resolution  to 
open  up  Africa  or  perish — Arrival  at  Linyanti — Unhealthiness  of  the 
country — Thoughts  on  setting  out  for  coast — Sekeletu's  kindness — Liv- 
ingstone's missionary  activity — Death  of  Mpepe,  and  of  his  father — 
Meeting  with  Ma-mochisane — Barotse  country — Determines  to  go  to 
Loanda — Heathenism  unadulterated — Taste  for  the  beautiful — Letter  to 
his  children — to  his  father — Last  Sunday  at  Linyanti — Prospect  of  his 
faUing.    • •    145 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FKOM   LINYANTI  TO   LOANDA. 

A.D.  1853-1854. 

PAGR 

Difficulties  and  hardships  of  journey — His  traveling  kit — Four  books — 
His  Journal — Mode  of  traveling — Beauty  of  country — Repulsiveness  of 
the  people — Their  religious  belief — The  negro — Preaching — The  magic- 
lantern — Loneliness  of  feeling — Slave-trade — Management  of  the  natives 
— Danger  from  Chiboque — from  another  chief — Livingstone  ill  of  fever 
— At  the  Quango — Attachment  of  followers — "  The  good  time  coming" 
— Portuguese  settlements — Great  kindness  of  the  Portuguese — Arrives  at 
Loanda — Received  by  Mr.  Gabriel — His  great  friendship — No  letters — 
News  through  Mr.  Gabriel — J^ivingstone  becomes  acquainted  with  naval 
officers — Resolves  to  go  back  to  Linyanti  and  make  for  East  Coast — 
Letter  to  his  wife — Correspondence  with  Mr.  Maclear — Accuracy  of  his 
observations — Sir  John  Herschel — Geographical  Society  award  their 
gold  medal — Remarks  of  Lord  Ellesmere 169i 

CHAPTER  IX. 

FROM    LOANDA   TO   QUILIMANE. 
A.D.  1854-1856. 

Livingstone  sets  out  from  Loanda — Journey  back — Effects  of  slavery — 
Letter  to  his  wife — Severe  attack  of  fever — He  reaches  the  Barotse 
country — Day  of  thanksgiving — His  efforts  for  the  good  of  his  men — 
Anxieties  of  the  Moffats — Mr.  Moffat's  journey  to  Mosilikatse — Box  at 
Linyanti — Letter  from  Mrs.  Moffat — Letters  to  Mrs.  Livingstone,  Mr. 
Moffat,  And  Mrs.  Moffat — Kindness  of  Sekel6tu — New  escort — He  sets 
out  for  the  East  Coast — Discovers  the  Victoria  Falls — The  healthy  lon- 
gitudinal ridges — Pedestrianism — Great  dangers — Narrow  escapes — 
Triumph  of  the  spirit  of  trust  in  God — Favorite  texts — Reference  to 
Captain  McClure's  experience — Chief  subjects  of  thought— Structure  of 
the  continent — Sir  Roderick  Murchison  anticipates  his  discovery — Let- 
ters to  Geographical  Society — First  letter  from  Sir  Roderick  Murchison 
— Missionary  labor — Monasteries — Protestant  mission-stations  wanting 
in  self-support — Letter  to  Directors — Fever  not  so  serious  an  obstruction 
as  it  seemed — His  own  hardships — Theories  of  mission«work — Expan- 
sion V.  Concentration — Views  of  a  missionary  statesman — He  reaches 
Tette — Letter  to  King  of  Portugal — to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison — 
Reaches  Senna — Quilimane — Retrospect — Letter  from  Directors — Goes 
to  Mauritius — Voyage  home — Narrow  escape  from  shipwreck  in  Bay  of 
Tunis — He  reaches  England,  Dec,  1856 — News  of  his  father's  death  .    186 


CONTENTS  k 

CHAPTER  X. 

FIRST    VISIT    HOME. 
A.D.  1856-1857. 

PAGB 

Mrs.  Livingstone — Her  intense  anxieties — Her  poetical  welcome — Con- 
gratulatory letters  from  Mrs.  and  Dr.  Moffat — Meeting  of  welcome  of 
Royal  Geographical  Society — of  London  Missionary  Society — Meeting 
in  Mansion  House — Enthusiastic  public  meeting  at  Cape  Town — Liv- 
ingstone visits  Hamilton — Returns  to  London  to  write  his  book — Letter 
to  Mr.  Maclear — Dr.  Risdon  Bennett's  reminiscences  of  this  period — ' 
Mr.  Frederick  Fitch's — Interview  with  Prince  Consort — Honors — Pub- 
lication and  .great  success  of  Missionary  Travels — Character  and 
design  of  the  book — Why  it  was  not  more  of  a  missionary  record — 
Handsome  conduct  of  publisher — Generous  use  of  the  profits — ^Letter 
to  a  lady  in  Carlisle  vindicating  the  character  of  his  speeches    •  .  •  215 

CHAPTER  XL 

FiEST  VISIT  HOME — Continued. 

A.D.  1857-1858. 

Livingstone  at  Dublin,  at  British  Association — Letter  to  his  wife — ^He 
meets  the  chamber  of  commerce  at  Manchester — At  Glasgow,  receives 
honors  from  Corporation,  University,  Faculty  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons, United  Presbyterians,  Cotton-spinners — His  speeches  in  reply— 
His  brother  Charles  joins  him — ^Interesting  meeting  and  speech  at 
Hamilton — Reception  from  "  Literary  and  Scientific  Institute  of  Blan- 
tyre" — S)mipathy  with  operatives — Quick  apprehension  of  all  public 
questions — ^His  social  views  in  advance  of  the  age — ^He  plans  a  People's 
Caf^ — ^Visit  to  Edinburgh — More  honors — ^Letter  to  Mr.  Maclear — In- 
teresting visit  to  Cambridge — ^Lectures  there — Professor  Sedgwick's 
remarks  on  his  visit — Livingstone's  great  satisfaction — Relations  to 
London  Missionary  Society — He  severs  his  connection — Proposal  of 
Government  expedition — He  accepts  consulship  and  command  of  Expe- 
dition— ^Kindness  of  Lords  Palmers  ton  and  Clarendon — The  Portuguese 
Ambassador — ^Livingstone  proposes  to  go  to  Portugal — Is  dissuaded — 
Lord  Clarendon's  letter  to  Sekeletu — Results  of  Livingstone 's  visit|to 
England — Farewell  banquet,  February,  1858 — Interview  with  the 
Queen — Veledictory  letters — Professor  Sedgwick  and  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison — Arrangements  for  Expedition — Dr.,  Mrs.,  and  Oswald 
Livingstone  set  sail  from  Liverpool — ^Letters  to  children 2?4 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  ZAMBESI.  AND  FIRST  EXPLORATIONS  OF  THfi  SHIRE. 

A.D.  1858-1859. 

PAGE 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone  sail  in  the  "  Pearl" — Characteristic  instructions 
to  members  of  Expedition — Dr.  Livingstone  conscious  of  difficult  posi- 
tion— Letter  to  Robert — Sierra  Leone — Effects  of  British  Squadron  and 
of  Christian  Missions — Dr.  and  Mrs.  Moffat  at  Cape  Town — Splendid 
reception  there — Illness  of  Mrs,  Livingstone — She  remains  behind — The 
five  years  of  the  Expedition — Letter  to  Mr.  James  Young — to  Dr.  Moffat 
— Kongone  entrance  to  Zambesi — Collision  with  Naval  Officer — Dis- 
turbed state  of  the  country — Trip  to  Kebrabasa  Rapids — Dr.  Livingstone 
applies  for  new  steamer — Willing  to  pay  for  one  himself — Exploration 
of  the  Shir6 — Murchison  Cataracts — Extracts  from  private  Journal — 
Discovery  of  Lake  Shirwa — Correspondence — Letter  to  Agnes  Living- 
stone— Trip  to  Tette — Kroomen  and  two  members  of  Expedition  dis- 
missed— Livingstone's  vindication — Discovery  of  Lake  Nyassa — Bright 
hopes  for  the  future — Idea  of  a  colony — Generosity  of  Livingstone — 
Letters  to  Mr.  Maclear,  Mr.  Young,  and  Sir  Roderick  Murchison — His 
sympathy  with  the  "  honest  poor" — He  hears  of  the  birth  of  his  youngest 
daughter 259 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

GOING  HOME   WITH   THE   MAKOLOLO. 
A.D.  1860. 

Down  to  Kongone — State  of  the  ship — Further  delay — Letter  to  Secretary 
of  Universities  Mission — Letter  to  Mr.  Braithwaite — At  Tette — Miss 
Whately's  sugar-mill — With  his  brother  and  Kirk  at  Kebratasa — Mode 
of  traveling — Reappearance  of  old  friends — African  warfare  and  its 
effects — Desolation — A  European  colony  desirable — Escape  from  rhino- 
ceros— Rumors  of  Moffat — The  Portuguese  local  Governors  oppose  Liv- 
ingstone— He  becomes  unpopular  with  them — Letter  to  Mr.  Young — 
Wants  of  the  country — The  Makololo — Approach  home — Some  are  dis- 
appointed— News  of  the  death  of  the  London  missionaries,  the  Helmores 
and  others — Letter  to  Dr.  Moffat — The  Victoria  Falls  re-examined — • 
Sekel^tu  ill  of  leprosy — Treatment  and  recovery — His  disappointment  at 
not  seeing  Mrs.  Livingstone — Efforts  for  the  spiritual  good  of  the  Mako- 
lolo— Careful  observations  in  Natural  History — The  last  of  the  "  Ma- 
Robert" — Cheering  prospect  of  the  Universities  Mission — Letter  to  Mr. 
Moore — to  Mr.  Young — He  wishes  another  ship — Letter  to  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison  on  the  rum'^-"''  ioumey  of  Silva  Porto *^83 


CONTENTS.  A 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

EOVUMA  AND  NYASSA — UNIVERSITIES  MISSION. 
A.D.  1861-1862. 

PAGB 

Beginning  of  1861 — Arrival  of  the  "  Pioneer,"  and  of  the  agents  of  Uni- 
versities Mission — Cordial  welcome — Livingstone's  catholic  feelings — 
Ordered  to  explore  the  Rovuma — Bishop  Mackenzie  goes  with  him — 
Returns  to  the  Shir6 — Turning-point  of  prosperity  past — Difficult  navi- 
gation— The  slave-sticks — Bishop  settles  at  Magomero — Hostilities  be- 
tween Manganja  and  Ajawa — Attack  of  Mission  party  by  Ajawa — 
Livingstone's  advice  to  Bishop  regardin  them — Letter  to  his  son 
Robert — Livingstone,  Kirk,  and  Charles  start  for  Lake  Nyassa — Party 
robbed  at  north  of  Lake — Dismal  activity  of  the  slave-trade — Awful 
mortality  in  the  process — Livingstone's  fondness  for  Punch — Letter  to 
Mr.  Young — Joy  at  departure  of  new  steamer  "  Lady  Nyassa" — Coloni- 
zation project — Letter  against  it  from  Sir  R.  Murchison — Hears  of  Dr. 
Stewart  coming  out  from  Free  Church  of  Scotland — Visit  at  the  ship 
from  Bishop  Mackenzie — News  of  defeat  of  Ajawa  by  missionaries — 
Anxiety  of  Livingstone — Arrangements  for  *'  Pioneer"  to  go  to  Kongone 
for  new  steamer  and  friends  from  home,  then  go  to  Ruo  to  meet  Bishop 
— "  Pioneer"  detained — Dr.  Livingstone's  anxieties  and  depression  at 
New  Year — "  Pioneer"  misses  man-of-war  **  Gorgon" — At  length  "  Gor- 
gon" appears  with  brig  from  England  and  "  Lady  Nyassa" — Mrs.  Liv- 
ingstone and  other  ladies  on  board — Livingstone's  meeting  with  his  wife, 
and  with  Dr.  Stewart — Stewart's  recollections — Difficulties  of  navigation 
— Captain  Wilson  of  "  Gorgon"  goes  up  river  and  hears  of  death  of 
Bishop  Mackenzie  and  Mr.  Burrup — Great  distress — Misrepresentations 
about  Universities  Mission — Miss  Mackenzie  and  Mrs.  Burrup  taken  to 
"  Cxorgon" — Dr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone  return  to  Shupanga — Illness  and 
death  of  Mrs.  Livingstone  there — Extracts  from  Livingstone's  Journal, 
and  letters  to  the  MofFats,  Agnes,  and  the  Murchisons 300 

CHAPTER  XV. 

LAST   TWO   YEARS   OP   THE   EXPEDITION. 
A.D.  1862-1863. 

Livingstone  again  buckles  on  his  armor — Letter  to  Waller — Launch  of 
"  Lady  Nyassa" — Too  late  for  season — He  explores  the  Rovuma — 
Fresh  activity  of  the  slave-trade — Letter  to  Governor  of  Mozambique 
about  his  discoveries — Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear — Generous  offer  of 
a  party  of  Scotchmen — The  Expedition  proceeds  up  Zambesi  with 
**  Lady  Nyassa"  in  tow — Appalling  desolations  of  Marianne — Tidings 
of  the  Mission — Death  of  Scudamort— of  Dickenson— of  Thornton— 


xu  CONTENTS, 

PAGB 

Illness  of  Livingstone — Dr.  Kirk  and  Charles  Livingstone  go  home — 
He  proceeds  northward  with  Mr.  Rae  and  Mr.  E.  D.  Young  of  the 
"Gorgon" — Attempt  to  carry  a  boat  over  the  rapids — Defeated — Recall 
of  the  Expedition — Livingstone's  views — Letter  to  Mr.  James  Young — 
to  Mr.  Waller — Feeling  of  the  Portuguese  Government — Offer  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Stewart — Great  discouragements — Why  did  he  not  go  home  ? 
— Proceeds  to  explore  Nyassa — Risks  and  sufferings — Occupation  of  his 
mind — Natural  History — Obliged  to  turn  back — More  desolation — 
Report  of  his  murder — Kindness  of  Chinsamba — Reaches  the  ship — 
Letter  from  Bishop  Tozer,  abandoning  the  Mission — Distress  of  Living- 
stone— Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear — Progress  of  Dr.  Stewart — Living- 
stonia — Livingstone  takes  charge  of  the  children  of  the  Universities 
Mission — Letter  to  his  daughter — Retrospect — The  work  of  the  Expedi- 
tion— Livingstone's  plans  for  the  future 324 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

QUILIMANE   TO   BOMBAY   AND   ENGLAND. 
A.D.  1864. 

Livingstone  returns  the  *'  Pioneer"  to  the  Navy,  and  is  to  sail  in  the. 
"  Nyassa"  to  Bombay — Terrific  circular  storm — Imminent  peril  of  the 
"Nyassa" — He  reaches  Mozambique — Letter  to  his  daughter— Proceeds 
to  Zanzibar — His  engineer  leaves  him — Scanty  crew  of  "Nyassa" — 
Livingstone  captain  and  engineer — Peril  of  the  voyage  of  2500  miles — 
Risk  of  the  monsoons — The  "  Nyassa"  becalmed — Illness  of  the  men — 
Remarks  on  African  travel — Flying-fish — Dolphins — Curiosities  of  his 
Journal — Idea  of  a  colony — Furious  squall — Two  sea-serpents  seen — 
More  squalls — The  "Nyassa"  enters  Bombay  harbor — Is  unnoticed — 
First  visit  from  officer  with  Custom-house  schedules — How  filled  up — 
Attention  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere  and  others — Livingstone  goes  with  the 
Governor  to  Dapuri — His  feelings  on  landing  in  India — Letter  to  Sir 
Thomas  Maclear — He  visits  mission-schools,  etc.,  at  Poonah — Slaving 
in  Persian  Gulf — Returns  to  Bombay — Leaves  two  boys  with  Dr.  Wilson 
— Borrows  passage-money  and  sails  for  England — At  Aden — At  Alex- 
andria— Reaches  Charing  Cross — Encouragement  derived  from  his 
Bombay  visit — Two  projects  contemplated  on  his  way  home 343 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

SECOND   VISIT   HOME. 
A.D.   1864-1865. 

Dr.  Livingstone  and  Sir  R.  Murchison — At  Lady  Palmerston's  reception— 
at  other  places  in  London — Sad  news  of  his  son  Robert — His  early  death 
—Dr.   Livingstone   goes   to   Scotland — Pays   visits — Consultation  with 


CONTENTS,  xiu 

PAGB 

Professor  Syme  as  to  operation — Visit  to  Duke  of  Argyll — to  Ulva — He 
meets  Dr.  DufF — At  launch  of  a  Turkish  frigate — At  Hamilton — Goes 
to  Bath  to  British  Association — Delivers  an  address — Dr.  Colenso — At 
funeral  of  Captain  Speke — Bath  speech  offends  the  Portuguese — Charges 
of  Lacerda — He  visits  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  at  Newstead — Their  great 
hospitality — The  Livingstone  room — He  spends  eight  months  there 
writing  his  book — He  regains  elasticity  and  playfulness — His  book — • 
Charles  Livingstone's  share — He  uses  his  influence  for  Dr.  Kirk — 
Delivers  a  lecture  at  Mansfield — Proposal  made  to  him  by  Sir  R.  Mur- 
chison  to  return  to  Africa — Letter  from  Sir  Roderick — His  reply — He 
will  not  cease  to  be  a  missionary — Letter  to  Mr.  James  Young — Over- 
tures from  Foreign  Office — Livingstone  displeased — At  dinner  of  Royal 
Academy — His  speech  not  reported — President  Lincoln's  assassination 
— Examination  by  Committee  of  House  of  Commons — His  opinion  on 
the  capacity  of  the  negro — He  goes  down  to  Scotland — Tom  Brown's 
School  Days — His  mother  very  ill — She  rallies — He  goes  to  Oxford — 
Hears  of  his  mother's  death — Returns — He  attends  examination  of  Os- 
well's  school — His  speech — Goes  to  London,  preparing  to  leave — Parts 
from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb — Stays  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton — Last 
days  in  England 356 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

FROM   ENGLAND   TO    BOMBAY   AND   ZANZIBAB. 
A.D.  1865-1866. 

Object  of  new  journey — Double  scheme — He  goes  to  Paris  with  Agnes- 
Baron  Hausmann — Anecdote  at  Marseilles — He  reaches  Bombay — 
Letter  to  Agnes — Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Livingstone  at  Bombay  by  Rev. 
D.  C.  Boyd — by  Alex.  Brown,  Esq. — Livingstone's  dress — He  visits  the 
caves  of  Kenhari — Rumors  of  murder  of  Baron  van  der  Decken — He 
delivers  a  lecture  at  Bombay — Great  success — He  sells  the  **  Lady 
Nyassa" — Letter  to  Mr.  James  Young — Letter  to  Anna  Mary — Hears 
that  Dr.  Kirk  has  got  an  appointment — Sets  out  for  Zanzibar  in  "  Thule" 
— Letter  to  Mr.  James  Young — His  experience  at  sea — Letter  to  Agnes 
— He  reaches  Zanzibar — Calls  on  Sultan — Presents  the  "  Thule"  to  him 
from  Bombay  Government — Monotony  of  Zanzibar  life — Leaves  in 
"  Penguin"  for  the  continent S76 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

FROM   ZANZIBAR   TO   UJIJL 

A.D.  1866-1869. 

Dr.  Livingstone  goes  to  mouth  of  Rovuma — His  prayer — His  company — 
His  herd  of  animals — Loss  of  his  buffaloes — Good  spirits  when  setting 
©ut — Difficulties  at  Rovuma — Bad  conduct  of  lohanna  men — Dismissal 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

of  his  Sepoys — Fresh  horrors  of  slave-trade — Uninhabited  tract — He 
reaches  Lake  Nyassa — Letter  to  his  son  Thomas — Disappointed  hopes — 
His  double  aim,  to  teach  natives  and  rouse  horror  of  slave-trade — Tenor 
of  religious  addresses — Wikatami  remains  behind — Livingstone  finds  no 
altogether  satisfactory  station  for  commerce  and  missions — Question  of 
the  watershed — Was  it  worth  the  trouble? — Overruled  for  good  to  Africa 
— Opinion  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere — At  Marenga's — The  Johanna  men  leave 
in  a  body — Circulate  rumor  of  his  murder — Sir  Roderick  disbelieves  it 
— Mr.  E.  D.  Young  sent  out  with  Search  Expedition — Finds  proof 
against  rumor — Livingstone  half-starved — Loss  of  his  goats — Review  of 
1866 — Reflections  on  Divine  Providence — Letter  to  Thomas — His  dog 
drowned — Loss  of  his  medicine-chest — He  feels  sentence  of  death  passed 
on  him — First  sight  of  Lake  Tanganyika — Detained  at  Chitimba's — 
Discovery  of  Lake  Moero — Occupations  during  detention  of  1867 — 
Great  privations  and  difficulties—  Illness — Rebellion  among  his  men — 
Discovery  of  Lake  Bangweolo — Its  oozy  banks — Detention — Sufferings — 
He  makes  for  Ujiji — Very  severe  illness  in  beginning  of  1869 — Reaches 
Ujiji — Finds  his  goods  have  been  wasted  and  stolen — Most  bitter  disap- 
pointment— His  medicines,  etc.,  at  Unyanyembe — Letter  to  Sultan  of 
Zanzibar — Letters  to  Dr.  Moffat  and  his  daughter 388 


CHAPTER   XX, 

MANYUEMA. 
A.D.  1869-187L 

He  sets  out  to  explore  Manyuema  and  the  river  Lualaba — Loss  of  forty- 
two  letters — His  feebleness  through  illness — He  arrives  at  Bambarr6 — 
Becomes  acquainted  with  the  soko  or  gorilla — Reaches  the  Luama  River 
— Magnificence  of  the  country — Repulsiveness  of  the  people — Cannot 
get  a  canoe  to  explore  the  Lualaba — Has  to  return  to  Bambarr6 — Letter 
to  Thomas,  and  retrospect  of  his  life — Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear 
and  Mr.  Mann — Miss  Tinn6 — He  is  worse  in  health  than  ever,  yet 
resolves  to  add  to  his  programme  and  go  round  Lake  Bangweolo — 
Letter  to  Agnes — Review  of  the  past — He  sets  out  anew  in  a  more 
northerly  direction — Overpowered  by  constant  wet — Reaches  Nyangwe, 
the  farthest  point  northward  in  his  last  Expedition — Long  detention — 
Letter  io  his  brother  John — Sense  of  difficulties  and  troubles — 
Nobility  of  his  spirit — He  sets  off  with  only  three  attendants  for  the 
Lualaba — Suspicions  of  the  natives — Influence  of  Arab  traders — 
Frightful  difficulties  of  the  way — Lamed  by  footsores — Has  to  return  to 
Bambarr^ — Long  and  wearisome  detention — Occupations — Meditations 
and  reveries — Death  no  terror — Unparalleled  position  and  trials — He 
reads  his  Bible  from  beginning  to  end  four  times — Letter  to  Sir  Thomas 
Maclear — To  Agnes — His  delight  at  her  sentiments  about  his  coming 


CONTENTS,  XV 

PAGB 

home — Account  of  the  soko— Grief  to  hea»  of  death  of  Lady  Murchison 
— "Wretched  character  of  men  sent  from  Zanzibar — At  last  sets  out  with 
Mohamad — Difficulties — Slave-trade  most  horrible — Cannot  get  canoes 
for  Lualaba — Long  waiting — New  plan — Frustrated  by  horrible  massacre 
on  banks  of  Lualaba — Frightful  scene — He  must  return  to  Ujiji — New 
illness — Perils  of  journey  to  Ujiji — Life  three  times  endangered  in  one 
day — Reaches  Ujiji — Shereef  has  sold  off  his  goods — He  i?  almost  in 
despair — Meets  Henry  M.  Stanley  and  is  relieved — His  contributions  to 
Natural  Science  during  last  journeys — Professor  Owen  in  the  Quarterly 
Review • 409 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

LIVINGSTONE    AND    STANLEY. 
A.D.  1871-1872. 

Mr.  Gordon  Bennett  sends  Stanley  in  search  of  Livingstone — Stanley  at 
Zanzibar — Starts  for  Ujiji — Reaches  Unyanyembe — Dangerous  illness- 
War  between  Arabs  and  natives — Narrow  escape  of  Stanley — Approach 
to  Ujiji — Meeting  with  Livingstone — Livingstone's  story — Stanley's 
news — Livingstone's  goods  and  men  at  Bagamoio — Stanley's  accoimt 
of  Livingstone — Refutation  of  foolish  and  calumnious  charges — They 
go  to  the  north  of  the  lake — Livingstone  resolves  not  to  go  home,  but  to 
get  fresh  men  and  return  to  the  sources — Letter  to  Agnes — to  Sir  Thomas 
Maclear — The  travelers  go  to  Unyanyembe — More  plundering  of  stores 
— Stanley  leaves  for  Zanzibar — Stanley's  bitterness  of  heart  at  parting — • 
Livingstone's  intense  gratitude  to  Stanley — He  intrusts  his  Journal  to 
him,  and  commissions  him  to  send  servants  and  stores  from  Zanzibar — 
Stanley's  journey  to  the  coast — Finds  Search  Expedition  at  Bagamoio— 
Proceeds  to  England — Stanley's  reception — Unpleasant  feelings — Eclair- 
cissement — England  grateful  to  Stanley •••    438 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO. 

A.D.  1872-1873. 

LWingstone's  long  vait  at  Unyanyembe — His  plan  of  operations — His 
fifty-ninth  birthday — Renewal  of  self-dedication — Letters  to  Agnes — to 
New  York  Herald — Hardness  of  the  African  battle — Waverings  of 
judgment,  whether  Lualaba  was  the  Nile  or  the  Congo — Extracts  from 
Journal — Gleams  of  humor — Natural  history — His  distress  on  hearing  of 
the  death  of  Sir  Roderick  Murchison — Thoughts  on  mission-work — 
Arrival  of  his  escort — His  happiness  in  his  new  men — He  starts  from 
Unyanyembe — Illness — Great  amount  of  rain — Near  Bangweolo — In- 
cessant moisture — Flowers  of  the  forest — Taking  of  observations  regu- 
larly prosecuted — Dreadfvil  state  of  the  country  from  rain — Hunger—* 


David  Livingstone 


CHAPTER  I. 

EA^LY  YEARS. 
A.D.  1813-1836. 

Ulva — The  Livingstones — Traditions  of  Ulva  life — The  **  baughting-time"— 
"  Kirsty's  Rock" — Removal  of  Livingstone's  grandfather  to  Blantyre— 
Highland  blood — Neil  Livingstone — His  marriage  to  Agnes  Hunter — Her 
grandfather  and  father — Monument  to  Neil  and  Agnes  Livingstone  in 
Hamilton  Cemetery — David  Livingstone,  born  19th  March,  1813 — Boyhood 
' — At  home — In  school — David  goes  into  Blantyre  Mill — First  Earnings — • 
Night-school — His  habits  of  reading — Natural-history  expeditions — Great 
spiritual  change  in  his  twentieth  year — Dick's  Philosophy  of  a  Future  State 
— He  resolves  to  be  a  missionary — Influence  of  occupation  at  Blantyre— 
Sympathy  with  the  people — Thomas  Burk  and  David  Hogg — Practical 
character  of  his  religion. 

The  family  of  David  Livingstone  sprang,  as  he  has 
himself  recorded,  from  the  island  of  Ulva,  on  the  west 
coast  of  Mull,  in  Argyllshire.  Ulva,  "the  island  of 
wolves,"  is  of  the  same  group  as  Staffa,  and,  like  it, 
remarkable  for  its  basaltic  columns,  which,  according  to 
MacCulloch,  are  more  deserving  of  admiration  than  those 
of  the  Giant's  Causeway,  and  have  missed  being  famous 
only  from  being  eclipsed  by  the  greater  glory  of  Staffa. 
The  island  belonged  for  many  generations  to  the  Mac- 
quaires,  a  name  distinguished  in  our  home  annals,  as  well 
as  in  those  of  Australia.  The  Celtic  name  of  the  Living- 
stones was  M'Leay,  which,  according  to  Dr.  Livingstone's 
own  idea,  means  "  son  of  the  gray-headed,"  but  according 
to  another  derivation,  "son  of  the  physician."    It  has  been 

(17) 


18  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

surmised  that  the  name  may  have  been  given  to  some  son 
of  the  famous  Beatoun,  who  held  the  post  of  physician  to 
the  Lord  of  the  Isles.  Probably  Dr.  Livingstone  never 
heard  of  this  derivation ;  if  he  had,  he  would  have  shown 
it  some  favor,  for  he  had  a  singularly  high  opinion  of  the 
physician's  office. 

The  Saxon  name  of  the  family  was  originally  spelt 
Livingstone,  but  the  Doctor's  father  had  shortened  it  by 
the  omission  of  the  final  "  e."  David  wrote  it  for  many 
years  in  the  abbreviated  form,  but  about  1857,  at  his 
'ather's  request,  he  restored  the  original  spelling.'  Tho 
significance  of  the  original  form  of  the  name  was  not 
without  its  influence  on  him.  He  used  to  refer  with  great 
pleasure  to  a  note  from  an  old  friend  and  fellow-student, 
the  late  Professor  George  Wilson,  of  Edinburgh,  acknowl- 
edging a  copy  of  his  book  in  1857:  "Meanwhile,  may 
your  name  be  propitious;  in  all  your  long  and  weary 
journeys  may  the  Living  half  of  your  title  outweigh  the 
other ;  till  after  long  and  blessed  labors,  the  white  stone  is 
given  you  in  the  happy  land." 

Livingstone  has  told  us  most  that  is  known  of  his  fore- 
fathers ;  how  his  great-grandfather  fell  at  Culloden,  fight- 
ing for  the  old  line  of  kings ;  how  his  grandfather  could 
go  back  for  six  generations  of  his  family  before  him, 
giving  the  particulars  of  each;  and  how  the  only  tradition 
he  himself  felt  proud  of  was  that  of  the  old  man  who  had 
never  heard  of  any  person  in  the  family  being  guilty  of 
dishonesty,  and  who  charged  his  children  never  to  intro- 
iuce  the  vice.  He  used  also  to  tell  his  children,  when 
spurring  them  to  diligence  at  school,  that  neither  had  he 
ever  heard  of  a  Livingstone  who  was  a  donkey.  He  has 
also  recorded  a  tradition  that  the  people  of  the  island  were 
converted  from  being  Roman  Catholics  "by  the  laird 
coming  round  with  a  man  having  a  yellow  staff,  which 
would   seem  to   have   attracted   more  attention  than  his 

*  Sec  Journal  of  Geographical  Society,  1857,  p.  clxviii. 


EABLY  YEARS.  19 

teaching,  for  the  new  religion  went  long  afterward — 
perhaps  it  does  so  still — by  the  name  of  the  religion  of  the 
yellow  stick."  The  same  story  is  told  of  perhaps  a  dozen 
other  places  in  the  Highlands;  the  "yellow  stick"  seems  to 
have  done  duty  on  a  considerable  scale. 

There  were  traditions  of  Ulva  life  that  must  have  been 
very  congenial  to  the  temperament  of  David  Livingstone. 
In  the  "  Statistical  Account"  of  the  parish  to  which  it 
belongs^  we  read  of  an  old  custom  among  the  inhabitants, 
to  remove  with  their  flocks  in  the  beginning  of  each  summer 
to  the  upland  pastures,  and  bivouac  there  till  they  were 
obliged  to  descend  in  the  month  of  August.  The  open- 
air  life,  the  free  intercourse  of  families,  the  roaming  frolics 
of  the  young  men,  the  songs  and  merriment  of  young  and 
old,  seem  to  have  made  this  a  singularly  happy  time.  The 
writer  of  the  account  (Mr.  Clark,  of  Ulvaj  says  that  he  had 
frequently  listened  with  delight  to  the  tales  of  pastoral  life 
?.ed  by  the  people  on  these  occasions ;  it  was  indeed  a  relic 
of  Arcadia.  There  were  tragic  traditions,  too,  of  Ulva; 
notably  that  of  Kirsty's  Rock,  an  awful  place  where  the 
islanders  are  said  to  have  administered  Lynch  law  to  a 
woman  who  had  unwittingly  killed  a  girl  she  meant  only 
to  frighten,  for  the  alleged  crime — denied  by  the  girl — 
of  stealing  a  cheese.  The  poor  woman  was  broken-hearted 
when  she  saw  what  she  had  done;  but  the  neighbors,  filled 
with  horror,  and  deaf  to  her  remonstrances,  placed  her  in 
a  sack,  which  they  laid  upon  a  rock  covered  by  the  sea  at 
high  water,  where  the  rising  tide  slowly  terminated  her 
existence.  Livingstone  quotes  Macaulay's  remark  on  the 
extreme  savagery  of  the  Highlanders  of  those  days,  like 
the  Cape  Caffres,  as  he  says ;  and  the  tradition  of  Kirsty's 
Rock  would  seem  to  confirm  it.  But  the  stories  of  the 
"  baughting-time  "  presented  a  fairer  aspect  of  Ulva  life, 
and  no  doubt  left  happier  impressions  on  his  mind.     His 

*  Kilninian  and  Kilmore.     See  //ew  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  Argyll- 
shire, p.  345. 


20  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

grandfather,  as  he  tells  us,  had  an  almost  unlimited  stock 
of  such  stories,  which  he  was  wont  to  rehearse  to  his  grand- 
children and  other  rapt  listeners. 

When,  for  the  first  and  last  time  in  his  life,  David  Living- 
stone visited  Ulva,  in  1864,  in  a  friend's  yacht,  he  could 
hear  little  or  nothing  of  his  relatives.  In  1792,  his  grand- 
father, as  fc  e  tells  us,  left  it  for  Blantyre,  in  Lanarkshire, 
about  seven  miles  from  Glasgow,  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde, 
where  he  found  employment  in  a  cotton  factory.  The 
dying  charge  of  the  unnamed  ancestor  must  have  sunk 
into  the  heart  of  his  descendant,  for,  being  a  God-fearing 
man  and  of  sterling  honesty,  he  was  employed  in  the  con- 
veyance of  large  sums  of  money  from  Glasgow  to  the 
works,  and  in  his  old  age  was  pensioned  off,  so  as  to  spend 
Ms  declining  years  in  ease  and  comfort.  There  is  a  tradition 
in  the  family,  showing  his  sense  of  the  value  of  education, 
that  he  was  complimented  by  the  Blantyre  school-master 
for  never  grudging  the  price  of  a  school-book  for  any  of 
his  children — a  compliment,  we  fear,  not  often  won  at  the 
present  day.  The  other  near  relations  of  Livingstone  seem 
to  have  left  the  island  at  the  same  time,  and  settled  in 
Canada,  Prince  Edward's  Isle,  and  the  United  States. 

The  influence  of  his  Highland  blood  was  apparent  in 
many  ways  in  David  Livingstone's  character.  It  modified 
the  democratic  influences  of  his  earlier  years,  when  he 
lived  among  the  cotton  spinners  of  Lanarkshire.  It  en- 
abled him  to  enter  more  readily  into  the  relation  of  the 
African  tribes  to  their  chiefs,  which,  unlike  some  other 
missionaries,  he  sought  to  conserve,  while  purifying  it  by 
Christian  influence.  It  showed  itself  in  the  dash  and  daring 
which  were  so  remarkbly  combined  in  him  with  Saxon 
forethought  and  perseverance.  We  are  not  sure  but  it 
gave  a  tinge  to  his  aff'ections,  intensifying  his  likes,  and 
some  of  his  dislikes  too.  His  attachment  to  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison  was  quite  that  of  a  Highlander,  and  hardly  less 
80  was  his  feeling  toward  the  Duke  of  Argyll, — a  man  whom 


EARLY  YEARS,  21 

he  had  no  doubt  many  grounds  for  esteeming  highly,  but 
of  whom,  after  visiting  him  at  Inveraray,  he  spoke  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  Highlander  for  his  chief. 

The  Ulva  emigrant  had  several  sons,  all  of  whom  but 
one  eventually  entered  the  King's  service  during  the 
French  war,  either  as  soldiers  or  sailors.  The  old  man 
was  somewhat  disheartened  by  this  circumstance,  and 
especially  by  the  fate  of  Charles,  head-clerk  in  the  office 
of  Mr.  Henry  Monteith,  in  Glasgow,  who  was  pressed  on 
board  a  man-of-war,  and  died  soon  after  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Only  one  son  remained  at  home,  Neil,  the  father 
of  David,  who  eventually  became  a  tea-dealer,  and  spent 
his  life  at  Blantyre  and  Hamilton.  David  Livingstone 
has  told  us  that  his  father  was  of  the  high  type  of  charac- 
ter portrayed  in  the  Cottar^s  Saturday  Night  There  are 
friends  still  alive  who  remember  him  well,  and  on  whom, 
he  made  a  deep  impression.  He  was  a  great  reader  from 
his  youth  upward,  especially  of  religious  works.  His 
reading  and  his  religion  refined  his  character,  and  made 
him  a  most  pleasant  and  instructive  companion.  His 
conversational  powers  were  remarkable,  and  he  could  pour 
out  in  a  most  interesting  way  the  stores  of  his  reading 
and  observation. 

Neil  Livingstone  was  a  man  of  great  spiritual  earnest- 
ness, and  his  whole  life  was  consecrated  to  duty  and  the 
fear  of  God.  In  many  ways  he  was  remarkable,  being  in 
some  things  before  his  time.  In  his  boyhood  he  had  seen 
the  evil  effects  of  convivial  habits  in  his  immediate  circle, 
and  in  order  to  fortify  others  by  his  example  he  became  a 
strict  teetotaler,  suffering  not  a  little  ridicule  and  opposi- 
tion from  the  firmness  with  which  he  carried  out  his 
resolution.  He  was  a  Sunday-school  teacher,  an  ardent 
member  of  a  missionary  society,  and  a  promoter  of  meet- 
ings for  prayer  and  fellowship,  before  such  things  had 
ceased  to  be  regarded  as  badges  of  fanaticism.  While 
traveling  through  the  neighboring  parishes  in  his  voca- 


^  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

tion  of  tea-merchant,  he  acted  also  as  colporteur,  distribu- 
ting tracts  and  encouraging  the  reading  of  useful  books. 
He  took  suitable  opportunities  when  they  came  to  him  of 
speaking  to  young  men  and  others  on  the  most  important 
of  all  subjects,  and  not  without  effect.  He  learned  Gaelic 
that  he  might  be  able  to  read  the  Bible  to  his  mother,  who 
knew  that  language  best.  He  had  indeed  the  very  soul  of 
a  missionary.  Withal  he  was  kindly  and  affable,  though 
very  particular  in  enforcing  what  he  believed  to  be  right. 
He  was  quick  of  temper,  but  of  tender  hearl  and  gentle 
ways;  anything  that  had  the  look  of  sternness  was  the 
result  not  of  harshness  but  of  high  principle.  By  this 
means  he  commanded  the  affection  as  well  as  the  respect 
of  his  family.  It  was  a  great  blow  to  his  distinguished 
son,  to  whom  in  his  character  and  ways  he  bore  a  great 
resemblance,  to  get  news  of  his  death,  on  his  way  home 
after  his  great  journey,  dissipating  the  cherished  pleasure 
of  sitting  at  the  fireside  and  telling  him  all  his  adventures 
in  Africa. 

The  wife  of  Neil  Livingstone  was  Agnes  Hunter,  a 
member  of  a  family  of  the  same  humble  rank  and  the 
same  estimable  character  as  his  own.  Her  grandfather, 
Gavin  Hunter,  of  the  parish  of  Shotts,  was  a  doughty 
Covenanter,  who  might  have  sat  for  the  portrait  of 
David  Deans.  His  son  David  (after  whom  the  traveler 
was  named)  was  a  man  of  the  same  type,  who  got  his  first 
religious  impressions  in  his  eighteenth  year,  at  an  open- 
air  service  conducted  by  one  of  the  Secession  Erskines. 
Snow  was  falling  at  the  time,  and  before  the  end  of  the 
sermon  the  people  were  standing  in  snow  up  to  the 
ankles ;  but  David  Hunter  used  to  say  he  had  no  feeling 
of  cold  that  day.  He  married  Janet  Moffat,  and  lived  at 
first  in  comfortable  circumstances  at  Airdrie,  where  he 
owned  a  cottage  and  a  croft.  Mrs.  Hunter  died,  when  her 
daughter  Agnes,  afterward  Mrs.  Neil  Livingstone,  was  but 
fifteen     Agnes  was  her  mother's  only  nurse  during  a  long 


EARLY  YEARS.  28 

illness,  and  attended  so  carefully  to  her  wants  that  th^ 
minister  of  the  family  laid  his  hand  on  her  head,  an^ 
said,  "  A  blessing  will  follow  you,  my  lassie,  for  your  duty 
to  your  mother."  Soon  after  Mrs.  Hunter's  death  a  reverse 
of  fortune  overtook  her  husband,  who  had  been  too  good- 
natured  in  accommodating  his  neighbors.  He  removed  to 
Blantyre,  where  he  worked  as  a  tailor.  Neil  Livingstone 
was  apprenticed  to  him  by  his  father,  much  against  his 
will ;  but  it  was  by  this  means  that  he  became  acquainted 
with  Agnes  Hunter,  his  future  wife.  David  Hunter,  whose 
devout  and  intelligent  character  procured  for  him  great 
respect,  died  at  Blantyre  in  1834,  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
seven.  He  was  a  great  favorite  with  his  grandchildren,  to 
whom  he  was  always  kind,  and  whom  he  allowed  to  rum- 
mage freely  among  his  books,  of  which  he  had  a  consider- 
able collection,  chiefly  theological. 

Neil  Livingstone  and  Agnes  Hunter  were  married  in 
1810,  and  took  up  house  at  first  in  Glasgow.  The  furnish- 
ing of  their  house  indicated  the  frugal  character  and  self- 
respect  of  the  occupants;  it  included  a  handsome  chest  of 
drawers,  and  other  traditional  marks  of  respectability. 
Not  liking  Glasgow,  they  returned  to  Blantyre.  In  a 
humble  home  there,  five  sons  and  two  daughters  were 
born.  Two  of  the  sons  died  in  infancy,  to  the  great 
sorrow  of  the  parents.  Mrs.  Livingstone's  family  spoke 
and  speak  of  her  as  a  very  loving  mother,  one  who  con- 
tributed to  their  home  a  remarkable  element  of  brightness 
and  serenity  Active,  orderly,  and  of  thorough  cleanli- 
ness, she  trained  her  family  in  the  same  virtues,  exempli- 
fying their  value  in  their  own  home.  She  was  a  delicate 
little  woman,  with  a  wonderful  flow  of  good  spirits,  and 
remarkable  for  the  beauty  of  her  eyes,  to  which  those  of 
her  son  David  bore  a  strong  resemblance.  She  was  most 
careful  of  household  duties,  and  attentive  to  her  children. 
Her  love  had  no  crust  to  penetrate,  but  came  beaming  out 
freely  like  the  light  of  the  sun.    Her  son  loved  her,  and 


24  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

in  many  ways  followed  her.  It  was  the  genial,  gentle 
influences  that  had  moved  him  under  his  mother's  train- 
ing that  enabled  him  to  move  the  savages  of  Africa. 

She,  too,  had  a  great  store  of  family  traditions,  and,  like 
the  mother  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  she  retained  the  power  of 
telling  them  with  the  utmost  accuracy  to  a  very  old  age. 
In  one  of  Livingstone's  private  journals,  written  in  1864, 
during  his  second  visit  home,  he  gives  at  full  length  one 
of  his  mother's  stories,  which  some  future  Macaulay  may 
find  useful  as  an  illustration  of  the  social  condition  of 
Scotland  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century ; 

"  Mother  told  me  stories  of  her  youth  :  they  seem  to  come  back  to 
her  in  her  eighty-second  year  very  vividly.  Her  grandfather,  Gravin 
Hunter,  could  write,  while  most  common  people  were  ignorant  of  the 
art.  A  poor  woman  got  him  to  write  a  petition  to  the  minister  of 
Shotts  parish  to  augment  her  monthly  allowance  of  sixpence,  as  she 
could  not  live  on  it.  He  was  taken  to  Hamilton  jail  for  this,  and 
having  a  wife  and  three  children  at  home,  who  without  him  would 
certainly  starve,  he  thought  of  David's  feigning  madness  before  the 
Philistines,  and  beslabbered  his  beard  with  saliva.  All  who  were  found 
guilty  were  sent  to  the  army  in  America,  or  the  plantations.  A  sergeant 
had  compassion  on  him,  and  said,  'Tell  me,  gudeman,  if  you  are  really 
out  of  your  mind.  I'll  befriend  you.'  He  confessed  that  he  only 
feigned  insanity,  because  he  had  a  wife  and  three  bairns  at  home  who 
would  starve  if  he  were  sent  to  the  army.  '  Dinna  say  onything  mair 
to  ony  body,'  fcaid  the  kind-hearted  sergeant.  He  then  said  to  the 
commanding  officer,  'They  have  given  us  a  man  clean  out  of  his  mind: 
I  can  do  nothing  with  the  like  o'  him.'  The  officer  went  to  him  and 
gave  hinr>  t^ree  shillings,  saying,  *Tak'  that,  gudeman,  and  gang  awa' 
hame  to  your  wife  and  weans.'  'Ay,'  said  mother,  'mony  a  prayer 
went  up  for  that  sergeant,  for  my  grandfather  was  an  unco  godly  man. 
He  had  never  had  so  much  money  in  his  life  before,  for  his  wa^es  were 
only  threepence  a  day.' " 

Mrs.  Livingstone,  to  whom  David  had  always  been  a 
ost  dutiful  son,  died  on  the  18th  June,  1865,  after  a 
lingering  illness  which  had  confined  her  to  bed  for  several 
years.  A  telegram  received  by  him  at  Oxford  announced 
her  death ;  that  telegram  had  been  stowed  away  in  one  of 
his  traveling  cases,  for  a  year  after  (19th  June,  1866),  in 


EARLY  YEARS,  25 

his  Last  JoumalSy  he  wrote  this  entry:  "I  lighted  on  a 
telegram  to-day : 

*  Your  mother  died  at  noon  on  the  18th  June. 

This  was  in  1865 ;  it  affected  me  not  a  little."  ^ 

The  home  in  which  David  Livingstone  grew  up  was 
bright  and  happy,  and  presented  a  remarkable  example 
of  all  the  domestic  virtues.  It  was  ruled  by  an  industry 
that  never  lost  an  hour  of  the  six  days,  and  that  welcomed 
and  honored  the  day  of  rest ;  a  thrift  that  made  the  most 
of  everything,  though  it  never  got  far  beyond  the  bare 
necessaries  of  life ;  a  self-restraint  that  admitted  no  stimu- 
lant within  the  door,  and  that  faced  bravely  and  steadily 
all  the  burdens  of  life;  a  love  of  books  that  showed  the 
presence  of  a  cultivated  taste,  with  a  fear  of  God  that 
dignified  the  life  which  it  moulded  and  controlled.  To 
the  last  David  Livingstone  was  proud  of  the  class  from 
which  he  sprang.  When  the  highest  in  the  land  were 
showering  compliments  on  him,  he  was  writing  to  his  old 
friends  of  "  my  own  order,  the  honest  poor,"  and  trying, 
by  schemes  of  colonization  and  otherwise,  to  promote  their 
benefit.  He  never  had  the  least  hankering  for  any  title 
or  distinction  that  would  have  seemed  to  lift  him  out  of 
his  own  class ;  and  it  was  with  perfect  sincerity  that  on  the 
tombstone  which  he  placed  over  the  resting-place  of  his 
parents  in  the  cemetery  of  Hamilton,  he  expressed  his 
feelings  in  these  words,  deliberately  refusing  to  change  ihf^ 
"and"  of  the  last  line  into  " but"; 

TO   SHOW   THE    RESTING-PLACE  OP 

NEIL  LIVINGSTONE, 
AND  AGNES  HUNTEE,  HIS  WIFE, 

AND   TO   EXPRESS    THE   THANKFTJLNESS   TO    GOD 
OF    THEIR    CHILDREN, 

JOHN,  DAVID,  JANET,  CHARLES,  AND  AGNES, 

FOR   POOR   AND   PIOUS   PARENTS. 

*  Las^  yournais,  vol.  i.  p.  55. 


26  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

David  Livingstone's  birthday  was  the  19th  March,  1813. 
Of  his  early  boyhood  there  is  little  to  say,  except  that 
he  was  a  favorite  at  home.  The  children's  games  were 
merrier  when  he  w^as  among  them,  and  the  fireside 
brighter.  He  contributed  constantly  to  the  happiness  of 
the  family.  Anything  of  interest  that  happened  to  him 
he  was  always  ready  to  tell  them.  The  habit  was  kept 
up  in  after-years.  When  he  went  to  study  in  Glasgow, 
returning  on  the  Saturday  evenings,  he  would  take  his 
place  by  the  fireside  and  tell  them  all  that  had  occurred 
during  the  week,  thus  sharing  his  life  with  them.  His 
sisters  still  remember  how  they  longed  for  these  Saturday 
evenings.  At  the  village  school  he  received  his  early 
education.  He  seems  from  his  earliest  childhood  to  have 
been  of  a  calm,  self-reliant  nature.  It  was  his  father's^ 
habit  to  lock  the  door  at  dusk,  bv  which  time  all  the 
children  were  expected  to  be  in  the  house.  One  evening 
David  had  infringed  this  rule,  and  when  he  reached  the 
door  it  was  barred.  He  made  no  cry  nor  disturbance,  but 
having  procured  a  piece  of  bread,  sat  down  contentedly  to 
pass  the  night  on  the  doorstep.  There,  on  looking  out, 
his  mother  found  him.  It  was  an  early  application  of  the 
rule  which  did  him  such  service  in  later  days,  to  make 
the  best  of  the  least  pleasant  situations.  But  no  one  could 
yet  have  thought  how  the  rule  was  to  be  afterward  applied. 
Looking  back  to  this  period,  Livingstone  might  have  said, 
in  the  words  of  the  old  Scotch  ballad : 

"0  little  knew  ray  mother, 
The  day  she  cradled  me, 
The  lands  that  I  should  wander  o'er, 
The  death  that  I  should  dee." 

At  the  age  of  nine  he  got  a  New  Testament  from  his 
Sunday-school  teacher  for  repeating  the  119th  Psalm  on 
two  successive  evenings  with  only  five  errors,  a  proof  that 
perseverance  was  bred  in  his  very  bone. 

His  parents  were  poor,  and  at  the  age  of  ten  he  was  put 


EAELY  YEARS.  27 

to  work  in  the  factory  as  a  piecer,  that  his  earnings  might 
aid  his  mother  in  the  struggle  with  the  wolf  which  had 
followed  the  family  from  the  island  that  bore  its  name. 
After  serving  a  number  of  years  as  a  piecer,  he  was  pro- 
moted to  be  a  spinner.  Greatly  to  his  mother's  delight,  the 
first  half  crown  he  ever  earned  was  laid  by  him  in  her  lap. 
Livingstone  has  told  us  that  with  a  part  of  his  first  week's 
wages  he  purchased  Ruddiman's  Rudiments  of  Latin,  and 
pursued  the  study  of  that  language  with  unabated  ardor 
for  many  years  afterward  at  an  evening  class  which  had 
been  opened  between  the  hours  of  eight  and  ten.  "  The 
dictionary  part  of  my  labors  was  followed  up  till  twelve 
o'clock,  or  later,  if  my  mother  did  not  interfere  by  jumping 
up  and  snatching  the  books  out  of  my  hands.  I  had  to  be 
back  in  the  factory  by  six  in  the  morning,  and  continue 
my  work,  with  intervals  for  breakfast  and  dinner,  till  eight 
o'clock  at  night.  I  read  in  this  way  many  of  the  classical 
authors,  and  knew  Virgil  and  Horace  better  at  sixteen  than 
I  do  now.''  ^ 

In  his  reading,  he  tells  us  that  he  devoured  all  the  books 
that  came  into  his  hands  but  novels,  and  that  his  plan  was 
to  place  the  book  on  a  portion  of  the  spinning-jenny,  so 
that  he  could  catch  sentence  after  sentence  as  he  passed 
at  his  work.  The  labor  of  attending  to  the  wheels  was 
great,  for  the  improvements  in  spinning  machinery  that 
have  made  it  self-acting  had  not  then  been  introduced. 
The  utmost  interval  that  Livingstone  could  have  for  reading 
at  one  time  was  less  than  a  minute 

The  thirst  for  reading  so  early  shown  was  greatly  stimu- 
lated by  his  father's  example.  Neil  Livingstone,  while  fond 
of  the  old  Scottish  theology,  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
enterprise  of  the  nineteenth  century,  or,  as  he  called  it, 
"  the  progress  of  the  world,"  and  endeavored  to  interest 
his  family  in  it  too.  Any  books  of  travel,  and  especially 
of  missionary  enterprise,  that  he  could  lay  his  hands  on, 

*  Missionary  Travels,  p.  3, 


28  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

he  eagerly  read.  Some  publications  of  tke  Tract  Society, 
called  the  Weekly  Visitor ^  the  Child's  Companion  and  Teacher's 
Offering,  were  taken  in,  and  were  much  enjoyed  by  his  son 
David,  especially  the  papers  of  "  Old  Humphrey."  Novels 
were  not  admitted  into  the  house,  in  accordance  with  the 
feeling  prevalent  in  religious  circles.  Neil  Livingstone 
had  also  a  fear  of  books  of  science,  deeming  them  un- 
friendly to  Christianity ;  his  son  instinctively  repudiated 
that  feeling,  though  it  was  some  time  before  the  works 
of  Thomas  Dick,  of  Broughty-Ferry,  enabled  him  to  see 
clearly,  what  to  him  was  of  vital  significance,  that  religion 
and  science  were  not  necessarily  hostile,  but  rather  friendly 
to  each  other. 

The  many-sidedness  of  his  character  showed  itself  early ; 
for  not  content  with  reading,  he  used  to  scour  the  country, 
accompanied  by  his  brothers,  in  search  of  botanical,  geo- 
logical, and  zoological  specimens.  Culpepper's  Herbal  was 
a  favorite  book,  and  it  set  him  to  look  in  every  direction 
for  as  many  of  the  plants  described  in  it  as  the  country- 
side could  supply.  A  story  has  been  circulated  that  on 
these  occasions  he  did  not  always  confine  his  researches  in 
zoology  to  fossil  animals.  That  Livingstone  was  a  poacher 
in  the  grosser  sense  of  the  term  seems  hardly  credible, 
though  with  the  Radical  opinions  which  he  held  at  the  time 
it  may  readily  be  believed  that  he  had  no  respect  for  the 
sanctity  of  game.  If  a  salmon  came  in  his  way  while  he 
was  fishing  for  trout,  he  made  no  scruple  of  bagging  it. 
The  bag  on  such  occasions  was  not  always  made  for  the 
purpose,  for  there  is  a  story  that  once  when  he  had  cap- 
tured a  fish  in  the  "  salmon  pool,"  and  was  not  prepared  to 
transport  such  a  prize,  he  deposited  it  in  the  leg  of  his 
brother  Charles's  trousers,  creating  no  little  sympathy  for 
the  boy  as  he  passed  through  the  village  with  his  sadly 
swollen  leg ! 

It  was  about  his  twentieth  year  that  the  great  spiritual 
change  took  place  which  determined  the  course  of  Living- 


EARLY  YEAR8,  99 

stone's  future  life.  But  before  this  time  he  had  earnest 
thoughts  on  religion.  "  Great  pains,  "  he  says  in  his  first 
book,  "had  been  taken  by  my  parents  to  instill  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity  into  my  mind,  and  I  had  no  difficulty  ia 
understanding  the  theory  of  a  free  salvation  by  the  atone- 
ment of  our  Saviour ;  but  it  was  only  about  this  time  that 
I  began  to  feel  the  necessity  and  value  of  a  personal  appli- 
cation of  the  provisions  of  that  atonement  to  my  own 
case."*  Some  light  is  thrown  on  this  brief  account  in  a 
paper  submitted  by  him  to  the  Directors  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  in  1838,  in  answer  to  a  schedule  of 
queries  sent  down  by  them  when  he  offered  himself  as  a 
missionary  for  their  service.  He  says  that  about  his  twelfth 
year  he  began  to  reflect  on  his  state  as  a  sinner,  and  became 
anxious  to  realize  the  state  of  mind  that  flows  from  the 
reception  of  the  truth  into  the  heart.  He  was  deterred, 
however,  from  embracing  the  free  offer  of  mercy  in  the 
gospel,  by  a  sense  of  unworthiness  to  receive  so  great  a 
blessing,  till  a  supernatural  change  should  be  effected  in 
him  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Conceiving  it  to  be  his  duty  to 
wait  for  this,  he  continued  expecting  a  ground  of  hope 
within,  rejecting  meanwhile  the  only  true  hope  of  the 
sinner,  the  finished  work  of  Christ,  till  at  length  his  con- 
victions were  effaced,  and  his  feelings  blunted.  Still  hia 
heart  was  not  at  rest;  an  unappeased  hunger  remained| 
which  no  other  pursuit  could  satisfy. 

In  these  circumstances  he  fell  in  with  Dick's  Philosophy 
of  a  Future  State.  The  book  corrected  his  error,  and  showed 
him  the  truth.  "  I  saw  the  duty  and  inestimable  privilege 
iwiTYiediately  to  accept  salvation  by  Christ.  Humbly  believ- 
ing that  through  sovereign  mercy  and  grace  I  have  been 
enabled  so  to  do,  and  having  felt  in  some  measure  its  effects 
on  my  still  depraved  and  deceitful  heart,  it  is  my  desire  to 
show  my  attachment  to  the  cause  of  Him  who  died  for  me 
by  devoting  my  life  to  his  service." 

^  MUsumary  Travels,  p.  4. 


80  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  tbat  David  Livingstone's  heart 
was  very  thoroughly  penetrated  by  the  new  life  that  now 
flowed  into  it.  He  did  not  merely  apprehend  the  truth — 
the  truth  laid  hold  of  him.  The  divine  blessing  flowed 
into  him  as  it  flowed  into  the  heart  of  St.  Paul,  St.  Augus- 
tine, and  others  of  that  type,  subduing  all  earthly  desires 
and  wishes.  What  he  says  in  his  book  about  the  freeness 
of  God's  grace  drawing  forth  feelings  of  affectionate  love 
to  Him  who  bought  him  with  his  blood,  and  the  sense  of 
deep  obligation  to  Him  for  his  mercy,  that  had  influenced, 
in  some  small  measure,  his  conduct  ever  since,  is  from  him 
most  significant.  Accustomed  to  suppress  all  spiritual 
emotion  in  his  public  writings,  he  would  not  have  used 
these  words  if  they  had  not  been  very  real.  They  give  us 
the  secret  of  his  life.  Acts  of  self-denial  that  are  very  hard 
to  do  under  the  iron  law  of  conscience,  become  a  willing 
service  under  the  glow  of  divine  love.  It  was  the  glow  of 
divine  love  as  well  as  the  power  of  conscience  that  moved 
Livingstone.  Though  he  seldom  revealed  his  inner  feel- 
ings, and  hardly  ever  in  the  language  of  ecstasy,  it  is  plain 
that  he  was  moved  by  a  calm  but  mighty  inward  power  to 
the  very  end  of  his  life.  The  love  that  began  to  stir  his 
heart  in  his  father's  house  continued  to  move  him  all 
through  his  dreary  African  journeys,  and  was  still  in  full 
play  on  that  lonely  midnight  when  he  knelt  at  his  bedside 
in  the  hut  in  Ilala,  and  his  spirit  returned  to  his  God  and 
Saviour 

At  first  he  had  no  thought  of  being  himself  a  mis*- 
sionary.  Feeling  "  that  the  salvation  of  men  ought  to  be 
the  chief  desire  and  aim  of  every  Christian,"  he  had  made 
a  resolution  "  that  he  would  give  to  the  cause  of  missions 
all  that  he  might  earn  beyond  what  was  required  for  his 
subsistence."*  The  resolution  to  give  himself  came  from 
his  reading  an  Appeal  by  Mr.  Gutzlaff*  to  the  Churches  of 
Britain  and  America  on  behalf  of  China.     It  was  "the 

^ . ■  - 

^  Statement  to  Directors  of  London  Missionarjr  Society, 


EARLY  YEARS,  SI 

claims  of  so  many  millions  of  his  fellow-creatures,  and  the 
complaints  of  the  scarcity,  of  the  want  of  qualified  mis- 
sionaries," that  led  him  to  aspire  to  the  office.  From 
that  time — apparently  his  twenty-first  year — his  "efforts 
were  constantly  directed  toward  that  object  without  any 
fluctuation." 

The  years  of  monotonous  toil  spent  in  the  factory  were 
never  regretted  by  Livingstone.  On  the  contrary,  he 
regarded  his  experience  there  as  an  important  part  of  his 
education,  and  had  it  been  possible,  he  would  have  liked 
"to  begin  life  over  again  in  the  same  lowly  style,  and  to 
pass  through  the  same  hardy  training."^  The  fellow- 
feeling  he  acquired  for  the  children  of  labor  was  invalua- 
ble for  enabling  him  to  gain  influence  with  the  same  class, 
whether  in  Scotland  or  in  Africa.  As  we  have  already 
seen,  he  was  essentially  a  man  of  the  people.  Not  that  he 
looked  unkindly  on  the  richer  classes, — he  used  to  say  in 
his  later  years,  that  he  liked  to  see  people  in  comfort  and 
at  leisure,  enjoying  the  good  things  of  life, — ^but  he  felt 
that  the  burden-bearing  multitude  claimed  his  sympathy 
most.  How  quick  the  people  are,  whether  in  England  or 
in  Africa,  to  find  out  this  sympathetic  spirit,  and  how 
powerful  is  the  hold  of  their  hearts  which  those  who  have 
it  gain !  In  poetic  feeling,  or  at  least  in  the  power  of 
expressing  it,  as  in  many  other  things,  David  Livingstone 
and  Robert  Burns  were  a  great  contrast ;  but  in  sympathy 
with  the  people  they  were  alike,  and  in  both  cases  the 
people  felt  it.  Away  and  alone,  in  the  heart  of  Africa, 
when  mourning  "the  pride  and  avarice  that  make  man  a 
wolf  to  man,"  Livingstone  would  welcome  the  "  good  time 
coming,"  humming  the  words  of  Burns : 

"  When  man  to  man,  the  world  o'er, 
Shall  brothers  be  for  a'  that." 

In  all  the  toils  and  trials  of  his  life,  he  found  the  good  of 

*  Missionary  Travels,  p.  6. 


32  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

that  early  Blantyre  discipline,  which  had  forced  him  to 
bear  irksome  toil  with  patience,  until  the  toil  ceased  to  he 
irksome,  and  even  became  a  pleasure. 

Livingstone  has  told  us  that  the  village  of  Blantyre, 
with  its  population  of  two  thousand  souls,  contained  some 
characters  of  sterling  worth  and  ability,  who  exerted  a 
most  beneficial  influence  on  the  children  and  youth  of  tho 
place  by  imparting  gratuitous  religious  instruction.  The 
names  of  two  of  the  worthiest  of  these  are  given,  probably 
because  they  stood  highest  in  his  esteem,  and  he  owed 
most  to  them,  Thomas  Burke  and  David  Hogg.  Essen- 
tially alike,  they  seem  to  have  been  outwardly  very 
different.  Thomas  Burke,  a  somewhat  wild  youth,  had 
enlisted  early  in  the  army.  His  adventures  and  hair- 
breadth escapes  in  the  Forty-second,  during  the  Penin- 
sular and  other  wars,  were  marvelous,  and  used  to  be  told 
in  after-years  to  crowds  of  wondering  listeners.  But  most 
marvelous  was  the  change  of  heart  that  brought  him  back 
an  intense  Christian  evangelist,  who,  in  season,  and  out  of 
season,  never  ceased  to  beseech  the  people  of  Blantyre  to 
yield  themselves  to  God.  Early  on  Sunday  mornings  he 
would  go  through  the  village  ringing  a  bell  to  rouse  the 
people  that  they  might  attend  an  early  prayer-meeting 
which  he  had  established.  His  temperament  was  far  too 
high  for  most  even  of  the  well-disposed  people  of  Blantyre, 
but  Neil  Livingstone  appreciated  his  genuine  worth,  and 
so  did  his  son.  David  says  of  him  that  "  for  about  forty 
years  he  had  been  incessant  and  never  weary  in  good 
works,  and  that  such  men  were  an  honor  to  their  country 
and  their  profession."  Yet  it  was  not  after  the  model  of 
Thomas  Burke  that  Livingstone*s  own  religious  life  was 
fashioned.  It  had  a  greater  resemblance  to  that  of  David 
Hogg,  the  other  of  the  two  Blantyre  patriarchs  of  whom 
he  makes  special  mention,  under  whose  instructions  he 
had  sat  in  the  Sunday-school,  and  whose  spirit  may  be 
gathered  from  his  death-bed  advice  to  him :  "  Now,  lad, 


±:aely  years,  33 

make  religion  the  every-day  business  of  your  life,  and  not 
a  thing  of  fits  and  starts ;  for  if  you  do,  temptation  and 
other  things  will  get  the  better  of  you."  It  would  hardly 
be  possible  to  give  a  better  account  of  Livingstone's 
religion  than  that  he  did  make  it  quietly,  but  very  really, 
the  every-day  business  of  his  life.  From  the  first  he 
disliked  men  of  much  profession  and  little  performance; 
the  aversion  grew  as  he  advanced  in  years ;  and  by  the 
end  of  his  life,  in  judging  of  men,  he  had  come  to  make 
somewhat  light  both  of  profession  and  of  formal  creed, 
retaining  and  cherishing  more  and  more  firmly  the  one 
great  test  of  the  Saviour — "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them/' 


34  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTER  11. 

MISSIONARY   PREPARATION. 
A.D.  1836—1840. 

His  desire  to  be  a  missionary  to  China — Medical  missions — He  studies  at  Glas- 
gow— Classmates  and  teachers — He  applies  to  London  Missionary  Society — 
His  ideas  of  mission  work — He  is  accepted  provisionally — He  goes  to  London 
— ^to  Ongar — Reminiscences  by  Rev.  Joseph  Moore — by  Mrs.  Gilbert — by 
Rev.  Isaac  Taylor — Nearly  rejected  by  the  Directors — Returns  to  Ongar — to 
London — Letter  to  his  sister — Reminiscences  by  Dr.  Risdon  Bennett — Promise 
to  Professor  Owen — Impression  of  his  character  on  his  friends  and  fellow- 
students — Rev.  R.  MofiFat  in  England — Livingstone  interested — Could  not 
be  sent  to  China — Is  appointed  to  Africa — Providential  links  in  his  history 
— Illness — Last  visits  to  his  home — Receives  Medical  diploma — Parts  boo 
his  family. 

It  was  the  appeal  of  Gutzlaff  for  China,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  inspired  Livingstone  with  the  desire  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary; and  China  was  the  country  to  which  his  heart 
turned.  The  noble  faith  and  dauntless  enterprise  of  Gutz- 
laff, pressing  into  China  over  obstacles  apparently  insur- 
mountable, aided  by  his  medical  skill  and  other  unusual 
qualifications,  must  have  served  to  shape  Livingstone's 
ideal  of  a  missionary,  as  well  as  to  attract  him  to  the 
country  where  Gutzlaff  labored.  It  was  so  ordered,  how- 
ever, that  in  consequence  of  the  opium  war  shutting  China, 
as  it  seemed,  to  the  English,  his  lot  was  not  cast  there ;  but 
throughout  his  whole  life  he  had  a  peculiarlj^  lively  interest 
in  the  country  that  had  been  the  object  of  his  first  love. 
Afterward,  when  his  brother  Charles,  then  in  America, 
wrote  to  him  that  he,  too,  felt  called  to  the  missionary  office, 
China  was  the  sphere  which  David  pointed  out  to  him,  in 
the  hope  that  the  door  which  had  been  closed  to  the  one 
brother  might  be  opened  to  the  other. 


MI88I0MAR  Y  PREPARA  TIOK  35 

When  he  determined  to  be  a  missionary,  the  only  persons 
to  whom  he  communicated  his  purpose  were  his  minister 
and  his  parents,  from  all  of  whom  he  received  great  en- 
couragement. ^  He  hoped  that  he  would  be  able  to  go 
through  the  necessary  preparation  without  help  from  any 
quarter.  This  was  the  more  commendable,  because  in 
addition  to  the  theological  qualifications  of  a  nussionary, 
he  determined  to  aquire  those  of  a  medical  practitioner. 
The  idea  of  medical  missions  was  at  that  time  compara- 
tively new.  It  had  been  started  in  connection  with  missions 
to  China,  and  it  was  in  the  prospect  of  going  to  that 
country  that  Livingstone  resolved  to  obtain  a  medical 
education.  It  would  have  been  comparatively  easy  for 
him,  in  a  financial  sense,  to  get  the  theological  training, 
but  the  medical  education  was  a  costly  affair.  To  a  man 
of  ordinary  ideas,  it  would  have  seemed  impossible  to 
make  the  wages  earned  during  the  six  months  of  summer 
avail  not  merely  for  his  support  then,  but  for  winter  too, 
and  for  lodgings,  fees,  and  books  besides.  Scotch  students 
have  often  done  wonders  in  this  way,  notably  the  late  Dr. 
John  Henderson,  a  medical  missionary  to  China,  who 
actually  lived  on  half-a-crown  a  week,  while  attending 
medical  classes  in  Edinburgh.  Livingstone  followed  the 
same  self-denying  course.  If  we  had  a  note  of  his  house- 
keeping in  his  Glasgow  lodging,  we  should  wonder  less  at 
his  ability  to  live  on  the  fare  to  which  he  was  often  reduced 

*  Livingstone's  minister  at  this  time  was  the  Rev,  John  Moir,  of  the  Congre- 
gational church,  Hamilton,  who  afterward  joined  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  is  now  Presbyterian  minister  in  Wellington,  New  Zealand.  Mr.  Moir  has 
furnished  us  with  some  recollections  of  Livingstone,  which  reached  us  after 
the  completion  of  this  narrative.  He  particularly  notes  that  when  Livingstone 
expressed  his  desire  to  be  a  missionary,  it  was  a  missionary  out  and  out,  a 
missionary  to  the  heathen,  not  the  minister  of  a  congregation.  Mr  Moir 
kindly  lent  him  some  books  when  he  went  to  London,  all  of  which  were 
conscientiously  returned  before  he  left  the  country.  A  Greek  Lexicon,  witk 
only  cloth  boards  when  lent,  was  returned  in  substantial  calf.  He  was  ever 
careful,  conscientious,  and  honorable  in  all  his  dealings,  as  his  father  had  beeo 
before  him. 


86  DA  VID  LI  VINOSTOKE. 

in  Africa.  But  the  importance  of  the  medical  qualificatioii 
had  taken  a  firm  hold  of  his  mind,  and  he  persevered  in 
spite  of  difficulties.  Though  it  was  never  his  lot  to  exercise 
the  healing  art  in  China,  his  medical  training  was  of  the 
highest  use  in  Africa,  and  it  developed  wonderfully  his 
strong  scientific  turn. 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  1836-37  that  he  spent  his  first 
session  in  Glasgow.  Furnished  by  a  friend  with  a  list  of 
lodgings,  Livingstone  and  his  father  set  out  from  Blantyre 
one  wintry  day,  while  the  snow  was  on  the  ground,  and 
walked  to  Glasgow.  The  lodgings  were  all  too  expensive. 
All  day  they  searched  for  a  cheaper  apartment,  and  at  last 
in  Rotten  Row  they  found  a  room  at  two  shillings  a  week. 
Next  evening  David  wrote  to  his  friends  that  he  had  entered 
in  the  various  classes,  and  spent  twelve  pounds  in  fees ; 
that  he  felt  very  lonely  after  his  father  left,  but  would  put 
"  a  stout  heart  to  a  stey  brae,"  and  "  either  mak'  a  spune  or 
spoil  a  horn."  At  Rotten  Row  he  found  that  his  landlady 
held  rather  communistic  views  in  regard  to  his  tea  and 
sugar ;  so  another  search  had  to  be  made,  and  this  time  he 
found  a  room  in  the  High  street,  where  he  was  very  com' 
fortable,  at  half-a-crown  a  week. 

At  the  close  of  the  session  in  April  he  returned  to  Blan- 
tyre and  resumed  work  at  the  mill.  He  was  unable  to  save 
quite  enough  for  his  second  session,  and  found  it  necessary 
to  borrow  a  little  from  his  elder  brother.^  The  classes  he 
attended  during  these  two  sessions  were  the  Greek  class  in 
Anderson's  College,  the  theological  classes  of  Rev.  Dr. 
Wardlaw,  who  trained  students  for  the  Independent 
Churches,  and  the  medical  classes  in  Anderson's.  In  the 
Greek  class  he  seems  to  have  been  entered  as  a  private 

'  The  readiness  of  elder  brothers  to  advance  part  of  their  hard-won  earnings, 
or  otherwise  encourage  a  younger  hrothftr  to  attend  college,  is  a  pleasant  feature 
of  family  life  in  the  humbler  classes  of  Scotland.  The  case  of  James  Beattie, 
the  poet,  assisted  by  his  brother  David,  and  that  of  Sir  James  Simpson,  who 
owed  ao  much  to  his  brother  Alexander,  will  be  remembered  ia  this  connectioa. 


MISSION AR  Y  PREPARA  TION,  37 

student  exciting  little  notice.*  In  the  same  capacity  he 
attended  the  lectures  of  Dr.  Wardlaw.  He  had  a  great 
admiration  for  that  divine,  and  accepted  generally  his 
theological  views.  But  Livingstone  was  not  much  of  a 
scientific  theologian. 

His  chief  work  in  Glasgow  was  the  prosecution  of 
medical  study.  Of  his  teachers,  two  attracted  him  beyond 
the  rest — the  late  Dr.  Thomas  Graham,  the  very  distin- 
guished Professor  of  Chemistry,  and  Dr.  Andrew  Buch- 
anan, Professor  of  the  Institutes  of  Medicine,  his  life-long 
and  much-attached  friend.  While  attending  Dr.  Graham*s 
class  he  was  brought  into  frequent  contact  with  the  assist- 
ant to  the  Professor,  Mr.  James  Young.  Originally  bred 
to  a  mechanical  employment,  this  young  man  had  attended 
the  evening  course  of  Dr.  Graham,  and  having  attracted 
his  attention,  and  done  various  pieces  of  work  for  him,  he 
became  his  assistant.  The  students  used  to  gather  round 
him,  and  several  met  in  his  room,  where  there  was  a  bench, 
a  turning-lathe,  and  other  conveniences  for  mechanical 
work.  Livingstone  took  an  interest  in  the  turning-lathe, 
and  increased  his  knowledge  of  tools — a  knowledge  which 
proved  of  the  highest  service  to  him  when — as  he  used  to 
say  all  missionaries  should  be  ready  to  do — he  had  to 
become  a  Jack-of-all-trades  in  Africa. 

Livingstone  was  not  the  only  man  of  mark  who  fre- 
quented that  room,  and  got  lessons  from  Mr.  Young  "how 
to  use  his  hands."  The  Eight  Hon.  Lyon  Playfair,  who 
has  had  so  distinguished  a  scientific  career,  was  another 
of  its  habitues.  A  galvanic  battery  constructed  by  two 
young  men  on  a  new  principle,  under  Mr.  Young's  instruc- 
tions, became  an  object  of  great  attraction,  and   among 

*  A  very  sensational  and  foolish  rtminiscence  was  once  published  of  a  raw 
country  youth  coming  into  the  class  with  his  clothes  stained  with  grease  and 
whitened  by  cotton-wool.  This  was  Livingstone.  The  fact  is,  nothing  could 
possibly  have  been  more  unlike  him.  At  this  time  Livingstone  was  not  working 
at  the  mill;  and,  in  regard  to  dress,  however  plainly  he  might  be  clad,  he  was 
iWTer  careless,  far  less  offensive. 
4 


38  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

those  who  came  to  see  it  and  its  effects  were  two  sons  of 
the  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the  University.  Although 
but  boys,  both  were  fired  at  this  interview  with  enthusiasm 
for  electric  science.  Both  have  been  for  many  years  Pro- 
fessors in  the  University  of  Glasgow.  The  elder,  Professor 
James  Thomson,  is  well  known  for  his  useful  inventions 
and  ingenious  papers  on  many  branches  of  science.  The 
younger,  Sir  William  Thomson,  ranks  over  the  world  as 
prince  of  electricians,  and  second  to  no  living  man  in 
scientific  reputation. 

Dr.  Graham's  assistant  devoted  himself  to  practical 
chemistry,  and  made  for  himself  a  brilliant  name  by  the 
purification  of  petroleum,  adapting  it  for  use  in  private 
houses,  and  by  the  manufacture  of  paraffin  and  paraffin- 
oil.  Few  men  have  made  the  art  to  which  they  devoted 
themselves  more  subservient  to  the  use  of  man  than  he 
whom  Livingstone  first  knew  as  Graham's  assistant,  and 
afterward  used  to  call  playfully  " Sir  Paraffin."  "I  have 
been  obliged  to  knight  him,"  he  used  to  say,  "  to  distin- 
guish him  from  the  other  Young."  The  "other"  Young 
was  Mr.  E.  D.  Young,  of  the  Search  Expedition,  and 
subsequently  the  very  successful  leader  of  the  Scotah 
Mission  at  Lake  Nyassa.  The  assistant  to  Dr.  Graham 
still  survives,  and  is  well  known  as  Mr.  Young,  of  Kelly, 
LL.D.  and  F.R.S. 

When  Livingstone  returned  from  his  first  journey  his 
acquaintance  with  Mr.  Young  was  resumed,  and  their 
friendship  continued  through  life.  It  is  no  slight  testi- 
mony from  one  who  knew  him  so  long  and  so  intimately, 
that,  in  his  judgment,  Livingstone  was  the  best  man  he 
ever  knew,  had  more  than  any  other  man  of  true  filial 
trust  in  God,  more  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  more  of  integ* 
rity,  purity,  and  simplicity  of  character,  and  of  self-deny- 
ing love  for  his  fellow-men.  Livingstone  named  after 
him  a  river  which  he  supposed  might  be  one  of  the  sources 
of  the  Nile,  and  used  ever  to  speak  with  great  respect  of 


MISSION AR  Y  PREPARA  TIOK  39 

fclie  chief  achievement  of  Mr.  Young's  life, — filling  houses 
with  a  clear  white  light  at  a  fraction  of  the  cost  of  the 
smoky  article  which  it  displaced. 

Beyond  their  own  department,  men  of  science  are  often 
as  lax  and  illogical  as  any ;  but  when  scientific  training  is 
duly  applied,  it  genders  a  habit  of  thorough  accuracy, 
inasmuch  as  in  scientific  inquiry  the  slightest  deviation 
from  truth  breeds  endless  mischief.  Other  influences  had 
already  disposed  Livingstone  to  great  exactness  of  state- 
ment, but  along  with  these  his  scientific  training  may  be 
held  to  have  contributed  to  that  dread  of  exaggeration  and 
of  all  inaccuracy  which  was  so  mairked  a  feature  of  his 
character  through  life. 

It  happened  that  Livingstone  dirl  not  part  company 
with  Professor  Graham  and  Mr.  Young  when  he  left 
Glasgow.  The  same  year.  Dr.  Graham  went  to  London 
as  Professor  in  University  College,  ^nd  Livingstone,  who 
also  went  to  London,  had  the  opportunity  of  paying  occa- 
sional visits  to  his  class.  In  this  way,  too,  he  became 
acquainted  with  the  late  Dr.  George  Wilson,  afterward 
Professor  of  Technology  in  the  University  of  Edinbvirgh, 
who  was  then  acting  as  unsalaried  assista^nt  in  Dr. 
Graham's  laboratory.  Frank,  genial,  and  chivalrous, 
Wilson  and  Livingstone  had  much  in  common,  and  more 
in  after-years,  when  Wilson,  too,  became  an  earnest  Chris- 
tian. In  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  their  character,  and 
in  their  devotion  to  science,  not  only  for  its  own  sake,  but 
as  a  department  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  they  were  brothers 
indeed.  Livingstone  showed  his  friendship  in  after-years 
by  collecting  and  transmitting  to  Wilson  whatever  he 
could  find  in  Africa  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  Edinburgh 
Museum  of  Science  and  Art,  of  which  his  friend  was  the 
firet  Director. 

In  the  course  of  his  second  session  in  Glasgow  (1837-38) 
Livingstone  applied  to  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
offering  his  services  to  them  as  a  missionary.    He  had 


40  DAVID  LiriNOSTONK 

learned  that  that  Society  had  lor  its  sole  object  to  send  the 
gospel  to  the  heathen ;  that  it  accepted  missionaries  from 
different  Churches,  and  that  it  did  not  set  up  any  par- 
ticular form  of  Church,  but  left  it  to  the  converts  to  choose 
the  form  they  considered  most  in  accordance  with  the 
Word  of  God.  This  agreed  with  Livingstone's  own  notion 
of  what  a  Missionary  Society  should  do.  He  had  already 
connected  himself  with  the  Independent  communion,  but 
this  preference  for  it  was  founded  chiefly  on  bis  greater 
regard  for  the  personnel  of  the  body,  and  for  the  spirit  in 
which  it  was  administered,  as  compared  with  the  Presby- 
terian Churches  of  Scotland.  He  had  very  strong  views 
of  the  spirituality  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  the  need  of 
a  profound  spiritual  change  as  the  only  true  basis  of  Chris- 
tian life  and  character.  He  thought  that  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  were  too  lax  in  their  communion,  and  particu- 
larly the  Established  Church.  He  was  at  this  time  a 
decided  Voluntary,  chiefly  on  the  ground  maintained  by 
such  men  as  Vinet,  that  the  connection  of  Church  and 
State  was  hurtful  to  the  spirituality  of  the  Church;  and 
he  had  a  particular  abhorrence  of  what  he  called  "geo- 
graphical Christianity,*' — which  gave  every  man  within 
a  certain  area  a  right  to  the  sacraments.  We  shall  see 
that  in  his  later  years  Dr.  Livingstone  saw  reason  to 
modify  some  of  these  opinions ;  surveying  the  Evangelical 
Churches  from  the  heart  of  Africa,  he  came  to  think  that, 
established  or  non-established,  they  did  not  difier  so  very 
much  from  each  other,  and  that  there  was  much  good  and 
considerable  evil  in  them  all. 

In  his  application  to  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
Livingstone  stated  his  ideas  of  missionary  work  in  com- 
prehensive terms:  "The  missionary's  object  if*  to  endeavor 
by  every  means  in  his  power  to  make  known  the  gospel 
by  preaching,  exhortation,  conversation,  instruction  of  the 
young;  improving,  so  far  as  in  his  power,  the  temporal 
condition  of  those  among  whom  he  labors,  by  introducing 


MISSION AR  Y  PREPARA  TION.  41 

the  arts  and  sciences  of  civilization,  and  doing  everything 
to  commend  Christianity  to  their  hearts  and  consciences. 
He  will  be  exposed  to  great  trials  of  his  faith  and  patience 
from  the  indifference,  distrust,  and  even  direct  opposition 
and  scorn  of  those  for  whose  good  he  is  laboring ;  he  may 
be  tempted  to  despondency  from  the  little  apparent  fruit 
of  his  exertions,  and  exposed  to  all  the  contaminating 
influence  of  heathenism."  He  was  not  about  to  undertake 
this  work  without  counting  the  cost.  "  The  hardships  and 
dangers  of  missionary  life,  so  far  as  I  have  had  the  means 
of  ascertaining  their  nature  and  extent,  have  been  the 
subject  of  serious  reflection,  and  in  dependence  on  the 
promised  assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  I  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  saying  that  I  would  willingly  submit  to  them, 
considering  my  constitution  capable  of  enduring  any 
ordinary  share  of  hardship  or  fatigue."  On  one  point 
he  was  able  to  give  the  Directors  very  explicit  informa- 
tion: he  was  not  married,  nor  under  any  engagement  of 
marriage,  nor  had  he  ever  made  proposals  of  marriage,  nor 
indeed  been  in  love  I  He  would  prefer  to  go  out  unmar- 
ried, that  he  might,  like  the  great  apostle,  be  without 
family  cares,  and  give  himself  entirely  to  the  work. 

His  application  to  the  London  Missionary  Society  was 
provisionally  accepted,  and  in  September,  1838,  he  was 
summoned  to  London  to  meet  the  Directors.  A  young 
Englishman  came  to  London  on  the  same  errand  at  the 
same  time,  and  a  friendship  naturally  arose  between  the 
two.  Livingstone's  young  friend  was  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Moore,  afterwards  missionary  at  Tahiti ;  now  of  Congleton, 
in  Cheshire.  Nine  years  later,  Livingstone,  writing  to  Mr. 
Moore  from  Africa,  said :  "  Of  all  those  I  have  met  since 
we  parted,  I  have  seen  no  one  I  can  compare  to  you  for 
sincere,  hearty  friendship."  Livingstone's  family  used  to 
speak  of  them  as  Jonathan  and  David.  Mr.  Moore  has^ 
kindly  furnished  us  with  his  recollections  of  Livingstone 
at  this  time : — 


42  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

"  I  met  with  Livingstone  first  in  September,  1838,  at  57  AldOTSgata 
street,  London.  On  the  same  day  we  had  received  a  letter  from  the 
Secretary  informing  us  severally  that  our  applications  had  been  received, 
and  that  we  must  appear  in  London  to  be  examined  by  the  Mission 
Board  there.  On  the  same  day,  he  from  Scotland,  and  I  from  the  south 
of  England,  arrived  in  town.  On  that  night  we  simply  accosted  each 
other,  as  those  who  meet  at  a  lodging  house  might  do.  After  breakfast 
on  the  following  day  we  fell  into  conversation,  and  finding  that  the 
&ame  object  had  brought  us  to  the  metropolis,  and  that  the  same  trial 
awaited  us,  naturally  enough  we  were  drawn  to  each  other.  Every  day, 
as  we  had  not  been  in  town  before,  we  risited  places  of  renown  in  the 
great  city,  and  had  many  a  chat  about  our  prospects. 

"  On  Sunday,  in  the  morning,  we  heard  Dr.  Leifchild,  who  was  then 
in  his  prime,  and  in  the  evening  Mr.  Sherman,  who  preached  with  all 
his  accustomed  persuasiveness  and  mellifluousness.  In  the  aflernoon 
we  worshiped  at  St.  Paul's,  and  heard  Prebendary  Dale. 

"  On  Monday  we  passed  our  first  examination.  On  Tuesday  we  went 
to  Westminster  Abbey.  Who  that  had  seen  those  two  young  men 
passing  from  monument  to  monument  could  have  divined  that  one  of 
them  would  one  day  be  buried  with  a  nation's — rather  with  the  civiliaed 
world's — lament,  in  that  sacred  shrine  ?  The  wildest  fancy  could  not 
have  pictured  that  such  an  honor  awaited  David  Livingstone.  I  grew 
daily  more  attached  to  him.  If  I  were  asked  why,  I  should  be  rather 
at  a  loss  to  reply.  There  was  truly  an  indescribable  charm  about  him, 
which,  with  all  his  rather  ungainly  ways,  and  by  no  means  winning 
face,  attracted  almost  every  one,  and  which  helped  him  ao  much  in  his 
after-wanderings  in  Africa. 

'*  He  won  those  who  came  near  nim  by  a  kind  of  spell.  There 
happened  to  be  in  the  boarding-house  at  that  time  a  young  M.D.,  a 
a  saddler  from  Hants,  and  a  bookseller  from  Scotland.  To  this  hour 
they  all  speak  of  him  in  rapturous  terms. 

"  After  passing  two  examinations,  we  were  both  so  far  accepted  by  the 
Society  that  we  were  sent  to  the  Rev.  Richard  Cecil,  who  resided  at 
Chipping  Ongar,  in  Essex.  Most  missionary  students  were  sent  to  him 
for  three  months'  probation,  and  if  a  favorable  opinion  was  sent  to  the 
Board  of  Directors,  they  went  to  one  of  the  Independent  colleges.  The 
students  did  not  for  the  most  part  live  with  Mr.  Cecil,  but  took  lodgings 
in  the  town,  and  went  to  his  house  for  meals  and  instruction  in  classics 
and  theology.  Livingstone  and  I  lodged  together.  We  read  Latin  and 
Greek,  and  began  Hebrew  together.  Every  day  we  took  walks,  and 
visited  all  the  spots  of  interest  in  the  neighborhood,  among  them  the 
country  churchyard  which  was  the  burial-place  of  John  Locke.  In  a 
place  so  quiet,  and  a  life  so  ordinary  as  that  of  a  student,  there  did  not 
oecur  many  events  worthy  of  recital.     I  will,  however,  mejition  one  at 


MISSION AE  Y  PREPARA  TION.  43 

two  things,  because  they  give  an  insight — a  kind  of  prophetic  glance — 
into  Livingstone's  after-career. 

*'  One  foggy  November  niorning,  at  three  o'clock,  he  set  out  from 
Ongar  to  walk  to  London  to  see  a  relative  of  his  father's.*  It  waa 
about  twenty-seven  miles  to  the  house  he  sought.  After  spending  a  few 
hours  with  his  relation,  he  set  out  to  return  on  foot  to  Ongar.  Just  out 
of  London,  near  Edmonton,  a  lady  had  been  thrown  out  of  a  gig.  She 
lay  stunned  on  the  road.  Livingston  immediately  went  to  her,  helped 
to  carry  her  into  a  house  close  by,  and  having  examined  her  and  found 
no  bones  broken,  and  recommending  a  doctor  to  be  called,  he  resumed 
his  weary  tramp.  Weary  and  footsore,  when  he  reached  Stanford 
Rivers  he  missed  his  way,  and  finding  after  some  time  that  he  was 
wrong,  he  felt  so  dead-beat  that  he  was  inclined  to  lie  down  and  sleep; 
but  finding  a  directing-post  he  climbed  it,  and  by  the  light  of  the  stara 
deciphered  enough  to  know  his  whereabouts.  About  twelve  that 
Saturday  night  he  reached  Ongar,  white  as  a  sheet,  and  so  tired  he 
could  hardly  utter  a  word.  I  gave  him  a  basin  of  bread  and  milk,  and 
I  am  not  exaggerating  when  I  say  I  put  him  to  bed.  He  fell  at  once 
asleep,  and  did  not  awake  till  noonday  had  passed  on  Sunday. 

*'  Total  abstinence  at  that  time  began  to  be  spoken  of,  and  Living- 
stone and  I,  and  a  Mr.  Taylor,  who  went  to  India,  took  a  pledge 
together  to  abstain.^  Of  that  trio,  two,  I  am  sorry  to  say  [heu  me 
miseruml),  enfeebled  health,  after  many  years,  compelled  to  take  a  little 
wine  for  our  stomachs'  sake.     Livingstone  was  one  of  the  two. 

"  One  part  of  our  duties  was  to  prepare  sermons,  which  were  sub* 
mitted  to  Mr.  Cecil,  and,  when  corrected,  were  committed  to  memory, 
and  then  repeated  to  our  village  congregations.  Livingstone  prepared 
one,  and  one  Sunday  the  minister  of  Stamford  Rivers^  where  the  cele- 
brated Isaac  Taylor  resided,  having  fallen  sick  after  the  morning 
service,  Livingstone  was  sent  for  to  preach  in  ihe  evening.  He  took 
his  text,  read  it  out  very  deliberately,  and  then — then — his  sermon 
had  fledl  Midnight  darkness  came  upon  him,  and  he  abruptly  said: 
'  Friends,  I  have  forgotten  all  I  had  to  say,'  and  hurrying  out  of  the 
pulpit,  he  left  the  chapel. 

*  We  learn  from  the  family  that  the  precise  object  of  the  visit  was  to  transact 
some  business  for  his  eldest  brother,  who  had  begun  to  deal  in  lace.  In  the 
darkness  of  the  morning  Livingstone  fell  into  a  ditch,  smearing  his  clothes,  and 
not  improving  his  appearance  for  smart  business  purposes.  The  day  was  spent 
in  going  about  in  London  from  shop  to  shop,  greatly  increasing  Livingstone's 
fatigue. 

'  Livingstone  had  always  practiced  total  abstinence,  according  to  the  invari- 
able custom  of  his  father's  house.  The  third  of  the  trio  was  the  Rev.  Joseph 
V.  S.  Taylor,  now  of  the  Irish  Presbyterian  Mission,  Gujerat,  Bombay. 


i4  DAVID  LIVINQSTONK 

"  He  never  became  a  preacher"  [we  ahall  see  that  this  does  not  apply 
to  hia  Dreaching  in  the  Sichuana  language],  "and  in  the  first  letter  I 
reoeived  from  him  from  Elizabeth  Town,  in  Africa,  he  says ;  '  I  am  a 
very  poor  preacher,  having  a  bad  delivery,  and  some  of  them  said  it 
they  knew  I  was  to  preach  again  they  would  not  enter  the  «hat>el. 
Whether  this  was  all  on  account  of  my  manner  I  don't  know  j  bui  the 
truth  which  I  uttered  seemed  to  plague  very  much  the  person  who  sup- 
plies  the  missionaries  with  wagons  and  oxen.  (They  were  bad  ones.) 
My  subject  was  the  necessity  of  adopting  the  benevolent  spirit  of  the 
Son  of  God,  and  abandoning  the  selfishness  of  the  world.'  Each  stu- 
dent at  Ongar  had  also  to  conduct  family  worship  in  rotation.  I  was 
much  impressed  by  the  fact  that  Livingstone  never  prayed  without 
the  petition  that  we  might  imitate  Christ  in  all  his  imitable  perfeo* 
tions." » 

In  the  Autobiography  of  Mrs.  Gilbert,  an  eminent 
member  of  the  family  of  the  Taylors  of  Ongar,  there  occur 
some  reminiscenses  of  Livingstone,  corresponding  to  those 
here  given  by  Mr.  Moore.* 

The  Rev.  Isaac  Taylor,  LL.D.,  now  rector  of  Settring- 
ham,  York,  son  of  the  celebrated  author  of  The  Natural 
History  of  Enthusiasm^  and  himself  author  of  Woi^ds  and 
Places,  Etruscan  Researches,  etc.,  has  kindly  furnished  ns 
with  the  following  recollection :  "  I  well  remember  as  a  boy 
taking  country  rambles  with  Livingstone  when  he  was 
studying  at  Ongar.  Mr.  Cecil  had  several  missionary 
students,  but  Livingstone  was  the  only  one  whose  per- 
sonality made  any  impression  on  my  boyish  imagination. 
I  might  sum  up  my  impression  of  him  in  two  words — 
simplicity  and  resolution.  Now,  after  nearly  forty  years, 
I  remember  his  step,  the  characteristic  forward  tread,  firm, 

*  In  connection  with  this  prayer,  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  impression  mado 
6y  Livingstone  nearly  twenty  years  afterward  on  one  who  saw  him  but  twice — • 
once  at  a  public  breakfast  in  Edinburgh,  and  again  at  the  British  Association 
in  Dublin  in  1857.  We  refer  to  Mrs.  Sime,  sister  of  Livingstone's  early  fria^d. 
Professor  George  Wilson,  of  Edinburgh.  Mrs.  Sime  writes :  *'  1  never  knew 
any  one  who  gave  me  more  the  idea  of  power  over  other  men,  such  power 
as  our  Saviour  showed  while  on  earth,  the  power  of  love  and  parity  coi^ 
bined.'» 

>  Page  886,  third  edition. 


MISSIONARY  PREPARATION.  45 

■Imple,  resolute,  neither  fast  nor  slow,  no  hurry  and  no 
dawdle,  but  which  evidently  meant — getting  there."' 
We  resume  Mr.  Moore's  reminiscences : 

"  When  three  months  had  elapsed,  Mr.  Cecil  sent  in  his  report  to  th« 
Board.  Judging  from  Livingstone's  hesitating  manner  in  conducting 
family  worship,  and  while  praying  on  the  week-days  in  the  chapel,  and 
also  from  his  failure  so  complete  in  preaching,  an  unfavorable  report  was 
given  in.  .  .  .  Happily,  when  it  was  read,  and  a  decision  was  about  to 
be  given  against  him,  some  one  pleaded  hard  that  his  probation  should 
be  extended,  and  so  he  had  several  months'  additional  trial  granted.  1 
sailed  m  the  same  boat,  and  was  also  sent  back  to  Ongar  as  a  naughty 
boy.  ...  At  last  we  had  so  improved  that  both  were  fully  accepted. 
Livingstone  went  to  London  to  pursue  his  medical  studies,  and  T  went 
k)  Cheshunt  College.  A  day  or  two  after  reaching  college,  I  sent  to 
Livingstone,  asking  him  to  purchase  a  second-hand  carpet  for  my  room. 
He  was  quite  scandalized  at  such  an  exhibition  of  effeminacy,  and 
positively  refused  to  gratify  my  wish.  ...  In  the  spring  of  1840  I  met 
Livingstone  at  London  in  Exeter  Hall,  when  Prince  Albert  delivered  his 
maiden  speech  in  England.  I  remember  how  nearly  he  was  brought  to 
silence  when  the  speech,  which  he  had  lodged  on  the  brim  of  his  hat, 
fell  into  it,  as  deafening  cheers  made  it  vibrate.  A  day  or  two  after,  W0 
heard  Binney  deliver  his  masterly  missionary  sermon,  '  Christ  seeing  of 
the  travail  of  his  soul  and  being  satisfied.'  " 

The  meeting  at  Exeter  Hall  was  held  to  inaugurate  the 
Niger  Expedition.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Samuel 
Wilberforce  became  known  as  a  great  platform  orator.^  It 
must  have  been  pleasant  to  Livingstone  in  after-years  to 

*On  one  occasion,  in  conversation  with  his  former  pastor,  the  Rev.  John 
Moir,  Livingstone  spoke  of  Mr.  Isaac  Taylor,  who  had  shown  him  much  kind- 
ness, and  often  invited  him  to  dine  in  his  house.  He  said  that  though  Mr, 
Taylor  was  connected  with  the  Independents,  he  was  attached  to  the  principles 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Mr.  Taylor  used  to  lay  very  great  stress  on 
acquaintance  with  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  as  necessary  for  meeting  the 
claims  of  the  Tractanans,  and  did  not  think  that  that  study  was  sufficiently 
encouraged  by  the  Nonconformists.  Any  one  who  has  been  in  Mr.  Taylor's 
study  at  Stanford  Rivers,  and  who  remembers  the  top-heavy  row  of  patristic 
folios  that  crowned  his  collection  of  books,  and  the  glance  of  pride  he  cast  on 
them  as  he  asked  his  visitor  whether  many  men  in  his  Church  were  well  read 
in  the  Fathers,  will  be  at  no  loss  to  verify  this  reminiscence.  Certainly  Livings 
Stone  had  no  such  qualification,  and  undoubtedly  he  never  missed  it. 

*Life  of  Bishop  Wilberforce,  vol.  i.  p.  160, 


46  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

recall  the  circumstance  when  he  became  a  friend  and  cor- 
respondent of  the  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

Notwithstanding  the  dear  postage  of  the  time,  Living- 
stone wrote  regularly  to  his  friends,  but  few  of  his  letters 
have  survived.  One  of  the  few,  dated  5th  May,  1839,  is 
addressed  to  his  sister,  and  in  it  he  says  that  there  had 
been  some  intention  of  sending  him  abroad  at  once,  but 
that  he  was  very  desirous  of  getting  more  education.  The 
letter  contains  very  little  news,  but  is  full  of  the  most 
devout  aspirations  for  himself  and  exhortations  to  his 
sister.  Alluding  to  the  remark  of  a  friend  that  they  should 
seek  to  be  "  uncommon  Christians,  that  is,  eminently  holy 
and  devoted  servants  of  the  Most  High,"  he  urges : 

"  Let  us  seek — and  with  the  conviction  that  we  cannot  do  without  it 
— ^that  all  selfishness  be  extirpated,  pride  banished,  unbelief  driven  from 
the  mind,  every  idol  dethroned,  and  everything  hostile  to  holiness  and 
opposed  to  the  divine  will  crucified ;  that  *  holiness  to  the  Lord '  may  be 
engraven  on  the  heart,  and  evermore  characterize  our  whole  conduct. 
This  is  what  we  ought  to  strive  after  ;  this  is  the  way  to  be  happy  ;  this 
is  what  our  Saviour  loves — entire  surrender  of  the  heart.  May  H« 
enable  us  by  his  Spirit  to  persevere  till  we  attain  i*I  All  comes  from 
Him,  the  disposition  to  ask  as  well  as  the  blessing  itself. 

"  I  hope  you  improve  the  talents  committed  to  you  whenever  there  is 
an  opportunity.  You  have  a  class  with  whom  you  have  some  influence. 
It  requires  prudence  in  the  way  of  managing  it ;  seek  wisdom  from 
above  to  direct  you ;  persevere— ^onH  be  content  with  once  or  twice 
recommending  the  Saviour  to  them — again  and  again,  in  as  kind  a 
manner  as  possible,  familiarly,  individually,  and  privately,  exhibit  to 
them  the  fountain  of  happiness  and  joy,  never  forgetting  to  implore 
divine  energy  to  accompany  your  endeavors,  and  you  need  not  fear  that 
your  labor  will  be  unfruitful.  If  you  have  the  willing  mind,  that  is 
accepted;  nothing  is  accepted  if  that  be  wanting.  God  desires  that. 
He  can  do  all  the  rest.  After  all,  He  is  the  sole  agent,  for  the  *  willing 
mind'  comes  alone  from  Him.  This  is  comforting,  for  when  we  think 
of  the  feebleness  and  littleness  of  all  we  do,  we  might  despair  of  having 
our  services  accepted,  were  we  not  assured  that  it  is  not  these  God  looks 
to,  except  in  so  far  as  they  are  indications  of  the  state  of  the  heart." 

Dr.  Livingstone's  sisters  have  a  distinct  recollection  that 
the  field  to  which  the  Directors  intended  to  send  him  was 


MIS8I0NAR  Y  PREPARA  TIOK  47 

the  West  Indies,  and  that  he  remonstrated  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  spent  two  years  in  medical  study,  but  in  the 
West  Indies,  where  there  were  regular  practitioners,  his 
medical  knowledge  would  be  of  little  or  no  avail.  He 
pleaded  with  the  Directors,  therefore,  that  he  might  be 
allowed  to  complete  his  medical  studies,  and  it  was  then 
that  Africa  was  provisionally  fixed  on  as  his  destination. 
It  appears,  however,  that  he  had  not  quite  abandoned  the 
thought  of  China.  Mr.  Moir,  his  former  pastor,  writes  that 
being  in  London  in  May,  1839,  he  called  at  the  Mission 
House  to  make  inquiries  about  him.  He  asked  whether 
the  Directors  did  not  intend  to  send  him  to  the  East 
Indies,  where  the  field  was  so  large  and  the  demand  so 
urgent,  but  he  was  told  that  though  they  esteemed  him 
highly,  they  did  not  think  that  his  gifts  fitted  him  for 
India,  and  that  Africa  would  be  a  more  suitable  field. 

On  returning  to  London,  Livingstone  devoted  himself 
with  special  ardor  to  medical  and  scientific  study.  The 
church  with  which  he  was  connected  was  that  of  the 
late  Rev.  Dr.  Bennett,  in  Falcon  Square.  This  led  to  his 
becoming  intimate  with  Dr.  Bennett's  son,  now  the  well- 
known  J.  Risdon  Bennett,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  and  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  London.  The 
friendship  continued  during  the  whole  of  Dr.  Livingstone's 
life.  From  some  recollections  with  which  Dr.  Bennett  has 
kindly  furnished  us  we  take  the  following: 

"My  acquaintance  with  David  Livingstone  was  through  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  when,  having  offered  himself  to  that  Society,  he 
came  to  London  to  carry  on  those  medical  and  other  studies  which  he 
lad  commenced  in  Glasgow.  From  the  first,  I  became  deeply  interested 
n  his  character,  and  ever  after  maintained  a  close  friendship  with  him. 
:  entertained  toward  him  a  sincere  affection,  and  had  the  highest  admi- 
ration of  his  endowments,  both  of  mind  and  heart,  and  of  his  pure  and 
noble  devotion  of  all  his  powers  to  the  highest  purposes  of  life.  One 
«)uld  not  fail  to  be  impressed  with  his  simple,  loving,  Christian  spirit, 
and  the  combined  modest,  unassuming,  and  self-reliant  character  of  the 
man. 


4S  DAYID  LIVINGSTONE. 

"  He  placed  himself  under  my  guidance  in  reference  to  his  medical 
ttttdies,  and  I  was  struck  with  the  amount  of  knowledge  that  he  had 
already  acquired  of  those  subjects  which  constitute  the  foundation  of 
medical  science.  He  had,  however,  little  or  no  acquaintance  with  the 
practical  departments  of  medicine,  and  had  had  no  opportunities  of 
studying  the  nature  and  aspects  of  disease.  Of  these  deficiencies  he 
was  quite  aware,  and  felt  the  importance  of  acquiring  as  much  practical 
knowledge  as  possible  during  his  stay  in  London.  I  was  at  that  time 
physician  to  the  Aldersgate  Street  Dispensary,  and  was  lecturing  at  the 
Charing  Cross  Hospital  on  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  thus  was  able 
to  obtain  for  him  free  admission  to  hospital  practice  as  well  as  attend- 
ance on  my  lectures  and  my  practice  at  the  dispensary.  I  think  that  I 
also  obtained  for  him  admission  to  the  opthalmic  hospital  in  Moorfields, 
With  these  sources  of  information  open  to  him,  he  obtained  a  consider- 
able acquaintance  with  the  more  ordinary  forms  of  disease,  both  surgicav 
and  medical,  and  an  amount  of  scientific  and  practical  knowledge  that 
could  not  fail  to  be  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  him  in  the  distant 
regions  to  which  he  was  going,  away  from  all  the  resources  of  civiliza- 
tion. Hia  letters  to  me,  and  indeed  all  the  records  of  his  eventful  life, 
demonstrate  how  great  to  him  was  the  value  of  the  medical  knowledge 
with  which  he  entered  on  missionary  life.  There  is  abundant  evidence 
that  on  various  occasions  his  own  life  was  preserved  through  his  cour- 
ageous and  sagacious  application  of  his  scientific  knowledge  to  his  own 
needs ;  and  the  benefits  which  he  conferred  on  the  natives  to  whose 
welfare  he  devoted  himself,  and  the  wonderful  influence  which  he 
exercised  over  them,  were  in  no  small  degree  due  to  the  humane  and 
skilled  assistance  which  he  was  able  to  render  as  a  healer  of  bodily 
disease.  The  account  which  he  gave  me  of  his  perilous  encounter  with 
the  lion,  and  the  means  he  adopted  for  the  repair  of  the  serious  injuries 
whjesh  he  received,  excited  the  astonishment  and  admiration  of  all  the 
medical  friends  to  whom  I  related  it,  as  evincing  an  amount  of  courage, 
sagacity,  skill,  and  endurance  that  have  scarcely  been  surpassed  in  the 
annals  of  heroism." 

Another  distinguished  man  of  science  with  whom 
Livingstone  became  acquainted  in  London,  and  on  whom 
he  made  an  impression  similar  to  that  made  on  Dp- 
Bennett,  was  Professor  Owen.  Part  of  the  little  time  at 
his  disposal  was  devoted  to  studying  the  series  of  compara- 
tive anatomy  in  the  Hunterian  Museum^.under  Professor 
*)wen's  charge  Mr.  Owen  was  interested  to  find  that  the 
^  anarkshire  student  was  born  in  the  same  neighborhood 


MUSSIOjAJi  Y  FREPARA  TION.  49 

as  Hunter,^  but  still  more  interested  in  the  youth  himself 
and  his  great  love  of  natural  history.  On  taking  leave, 
Livingstone  promised  to  bear  his  instructor  in  mind  if 
any  curiosity  fell  in  his  way.  Years  passed,  and  as  nv> 
communication  reached  him,  Mr.  Owen  was  disposed  to 
class  the  promise  with  too  many  others  made  in  the  like 
circumstances.  But  on  his  first  return  to  this  country 
Livingstone  presented  himself,  bearing  the  tusk  of  an 
elephant  with  a  spiral  curve.  He  had  found  it  in  the 
heart  of  Africa,  and  it  was  not  easy  of  transport.  "  You 
may  recall,"  said  Professor  Owen,  at  the  Farewell  Festival 
in  1858,  "  the  difiiculties  of  the  progress  of  the  weary  sick 
traveler  on  the  bullock's  back.  Every  pound  weight  was 
of  moment ;  but  Livingstone  said,  *  Owen  shall  have  this 
tusk,'  and  he  placed  it  in  my  hands  in  London."  Pro- 
fessor Owen  recorded  this  as  a  proof  of  Livingstone's 
inflexible  adherence  to  his  word.  With  equal  justice  we 
may  quote  it  as  a  proof  of  his  undying  gratitude  to  any 
one  that  had  shown  him  kindness. 

On  all  his  fellow-students  and  acquaintances  the  sim- 
plicity, frankness,  and  kindliness  of  Livingstone's  character 
made  a  deep  impression.  Mr.  J.  S.  Cook,  now  of  London, 
who  spent  three  months  with  him  at  Ongar,  writes :  "  He 
was  so  kind  and  gentle  in  word  and  deed  to  all  about  him 
that  all  loved  him.  He  had  always  words  of  sympathy  at 
command,  and  was  ready  to  perform  acts  of  sympathy  for 
those  who  were  suffering."  The  Rev.  G.  D.  Watt,  a 
brother  Scotchman,  who  went  as  a  missionary  to  India, 
has  a  vivid  remembrance  of  Living-stone's  mode  of  dis- 
cussion ;  he  showed  great  simplicity  of  view,  along  with  a 
certain  roughness  or  bluntness  of  manner;  great  kindli- 
ness, and  yet  great  persistence  in  holding  to  his  own  ideas. 
But  none  of  his  friends  seem  to  have  had  any  foresight  of 

*  Not  in  the  same  parish,  as  stated  afterward  by  Professor  Owen.     Hunter 
was  bom  in  East  Kilbride,  and  Livingstone  in  Blantyre.     The  error  is  r^}ea}»4 
in  noHces  of  Livingstose  in  some  other  quarters. 
6 


60  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

the  eminence  he  was  destined  to  attain.  The  Directors  of 
the  Society  did  not  even  rank  him  among  their  ablest 
men.  It  is  interesting  to  contrast  the  opinion  entertained 
cf  him  then  with  that  expressed  by  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  after 
much  personal  intercourse,  many  years  afterward.  "Of 
his  intellectual  force  and  energy/*  wrote  Sir  Bartle,  "  he 
his  given  such  proof  as  few  men  could  afford.  Any  five 
years  of  his  life  might  in  any  other  occupation  have  estab- 
lished a  character  and  raised  for  him  a  fortune  such  as 
none  but  the  most  energetic  of  our  race  can  realize."  ^ 

But  his  early  friends  were  not  so  much  at  fault. 
Livingstone  was  somewhat  slow  of  maturing.  If  we  may 
say  so,  his  intellect  hung  fire  up  to  this  very  time,  and  it 
was  only  during  his  last  year  in  England  that  he  came  to 
his  intellectual  manhood,  and  showed  his  real  power.  His 
very  handwriting  shows  the  change ;  from  being  cramped 
and  feeble  it  suddenly  becomes  clear,  firm,  and  upright,  very 
D«at,  but  quite  the  hand  of  a  vigorous,  independent  man. 

Livingstone's  prospects  of  getting  to  China  had  been 

damaged  by  the  Opium  War ;  while  it  continued,  no  new 

appointments   could    be  made,  even   had    the    Directors 

wished  to  send  him  there.     It  was  in  these  circumstances 

that  he  came  into  contact  with  his  countryman,  Mr.  (now 

Dr.)  Moffat,  who  was  then   in   England,  creating  much 

interest  in  his  South  African  mission.     The  idea  of  his 

going  to  Africa  became  a  settled  thing,  and  was  soon 

carried  into  effect. 

"  I  had  occasion"  (Dr.  Moffat  has  informed  us)  "to  call  for  some  one 
At  Mrs.  Sewell's,  a  boarding-house  for  young  missionaries  in  Aldersgate 
street,  where  Livingstone  lived.  I  observed  soon  that  this  young  man 
was  interested  in  my  story,  that  he  would  sometimes  come  quietly  and 
aek  me  a  question  or  two,  and  that  he  was  always  desirous  to  know 
where  I  was  to  speak  in  public,  and  attended  on  these  occasions.  By 
and  by  he  asked  me  whether  I  thought  he  would  do  for  Africa.  I  said 
I  believed  he  would,  if  he  would  not  go  to  an  old  station,  but  would 
advance  to  unoccupied  ground,  specifying  the  vast  plain  to  the  north, 
where  I  had  sometimes  seen,  in  the  morning  sun,  the  smoke  of  a  thou- 

»  GoodlVords,  1874,  p.  286. 


MISSION AR  Y  PREPARA  TION  51 

Band  villages,  where  no  missionary  had  ever  been.  At  last  Livingstone 
said :  *  What  is  the  use  of  my  waiting  for  the  end  of  this  abominable 
opium  war?  I  will  go  at  once  to  Africa.'  The  Directors  concurred, 
and  Africa  became  his  sphere." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  all  his  life  Livingstone  had  a  very 
strong  faith  in  Providence,  for  at  every  turn  of  his  career 
up  to  this  point,  some  unlooked-for  circumstance  had 
come  in  to  give  a  new  direction  to  his  history.  First,  his 
reading  Dick's  Philosophy  of  a  Future  State,  which  led  him 
to  Christ,  but  did  not  lead  him  away  from  science ;  then 
his  falling  in  with  GutzlafF's  Appeal,  which  induced  him 
to  become  a  medical  missionary ;  the  Opium  War,  which 
closed  China  against  him;  the  friendly  word  of  the 
Director  who  procured  for  him  another  trial ;  Mr.  Moffat's 
visit,  which  deepened  his  interest  in  Africa ;  and  finally, 
the  issue  of  a  dangerous  illness  that  attacked  him  in 
London — all  indicated  the  unseen  hand  that  was  prepar- 
ing him  for  his  great  work. 

The  meeting  of  Livingstone  with  Moffat  is  far  tea 
important  an  event  to  be  passed  over  without  remark. 
Both  directly  and  indirectly  Mr.  Moffat's  influence  on  his 
young  brother,  afterward  to  become  his  son-in-law,  was 
remarkable.  Li  after-life  they  had  a  thorough  apprecia- 
tion of  each  other.  No  family  on  the  face  of  the  globe 
could  have  been  so  helpful  to  Livingstone  in  connection 
with  the  great  work  to  which  he  gave  himself.  If  the  old 
Roman  fashion  of  surnames  still  prevailed,  there  is  no 
household  of  which  all  the  members  would  have  been 
better  entitled  to  put  Africanus  after  their  name.  The 
interests  of  the  great  continent  were  dear  to  them  all.  In 
1872,  when  one  of  the  Search  Expeditions  for  Livingstone 
was  fitted  out,  a  grandson  of  Dr.  Moffat,  another  Robert 
Moffat,  was  among  those  who  set  out  in  the  hope  of  reliev- 
ing him ;  cut  off  at  the  very  beginning,  in  the  flower  of 
his  youth,  he  left  his  bones  to  moulder  in  African  soil. 

The  illness  to  which  we  have  alluded  was  an  attack  of 


52  DAVID  LIVINOSTONE. 

congestion  of  the  liver,  with  an  affection  of  the  lungs. 
It  seemed  likely  to  prove  fatal,  and  the  only  chance  of 
recovery  appeared  to  be  a  visit  to  his  home,  and  return 
to  his  native  air.  In  accompanying  him  to  the  steamer, 
Mr.  Moore  found  him  so  weak  that  he  could  scarcely  walk 
on  board.  He  parted  from  him  in  tears,  fearing  that  he 
had  brt  a  few  days  to  live.  But  the  voyage  and  the  visit 
had  a  wonderful  effect,  and  very  soon  Livingstone  was  in 
his  usual  health.  The  parting  with  his  father  and  mother, 
as  they  afterward  told  Mr.  Moore,  was  very  affecting.  It 
happened,  however,  that  they  met  once  more.  It  was  felt 
that  the  possession  of  a  medical  diploma  would  be  of 
service,  and  Livingstone  returned  to  Scotland  in  Novem- 
ber, 1840,  and  passed  at  Glasgow  as  Licentiate  of  the 
Faculty  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  It  was  on  this  occa- 
sion he  found  it  so  inconvenient  to  have  opinions  of  his 
own  and  the  knack  of  sticking  to  them.  It  seemed  as  if 
he  was  going  to  be  rejected  for  obstinately  maintaining  his 
views  in  regard  to  the  stethoscope;  but  he  pulled  through. 
A  single  night  was  all  that  he  could  spend  with  his  family, 
and  they  had  so  much  to  speak  of  that  David  proposed 
they  should  sit  up  all  night.  This,  however,  his  mother 
would  not  hear  of  "I  remember  my  father  and  him,'* 
writes  his  sister,  "  talking  over  the  prospects  of  Christian 
missions.  They  agreed  that  the  time  would  come  when 
rich  men  and  great  men  would  think  it  an  honor  to  sup- 
port whole  stations  of  missionaries,  instead  of  spending 
their  money  on  hounds  and  horses.  On  the  morning  of 
17th  November  we  got  up  at  five  o'clock.  My  mother 
maa.^  coffee.  David  read  the  121st  and  135th  Psalms,  and 
prayed.  My  father  and  he  walked  to  Glasgow  to  catch 
the  Liverpool  steamer."  On  the  Broomielaw,  father  and 
son  looked  for  the  last  time  on  earth  on  each  other's  faces. 
The  old  man  walked  back  slowly  to  Blantyre,  with  a 
lonely  heart  no  doubt,  yet  praising  God.  David's  face  was 
now  set  in  earnest  toward  the  Dark  Continent. 


FIBST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA  58 


CHAPTER  III. 

FIKST  TWO   YEARS   IN  AFRICA. 
A.D.  1841-1843. 

His  wdination — ^Voyage  out — At  Rio  de  Janeiro — At  the  Cape — He  proceeds 
tG  Kuniman — Letters — Journey  of  700  miles  to  Bechuana  country — Selection 
of  site  for  new  station — Second  excursion  to  Bechuana  country — Letter  to 
his  sister — Influence  with  chiefs — Bubi — Construction  of  a  water-dam— 
Sekomi — Woman  seized  by  a  lion — The  Bakaa — Sebehwe — Letter  to  Dr. 
Risdon  Bennett — Detention  at  Kuruman — He  i?isits  Sebehwe's  village — 
Bakhatlas — Sech6le,  chief  of  Bakwains — Livingstone  translates  hymns — 
Travels  400  miles  on  oxback — Returns  to  Kuruman — Is  authorized  to  form 
new  station — R.eceives  contributions  for  native  missionary — Letters  to 
Directors  on  their  Mission  policy — He  goes  to  new  station — Fellow-travelers 
—Purchase  of  site — Letter  to  Dr.  Bennett — Desiccation  of  South  Africa- 
Death  of  a  servant,  Sehamy — Letter  to  his  parents. 

On  the  20th  November,  1840,  Livingstone  was  ordained 
a  missionary  in  Albion  Street  Chapel,  along  with  the  Rev. 
William  Ross,  the  service  being  conducted  by  the  Rev.  J. 
J.  Freeman  and  the  Rev.  R.  Cecil.  On  the  8th  of  Decem- 
ber he  embarked  on  board  the  ship  "  George,"  under  Cap- 
tain Donaldson,  and  proceeded  to  the  Cape,  and  thence  to 
Algoa  Bay.  On  the  way  the  ship  had  to  put  in  at  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  and  he  had  a  glance  at  Brazil,  with  which  he  was 
greatly  charmed.  It  was  the  only  glimpse  he  ever  got  of 
any  part  of  the  great  continent  of  America.  Writing  to 
the  Rev.  G.  D.  Watt,  with  whom  he  had  become  intimate 
in  London,  and  who  was  preparing  to  go  as  a  missionary 
to  India,  he  says : 

"  It  is  certainly  the  finest  place  I  ever  s&,w  j  everything  delighted  me 
except  man.  ,  .  ,  "We  lived  in  the  home  of  an  American  Episcopal 
Methodist  minister — the  only  Protestant  missionary  in  Brazil.  ,  ,  . 
Tracts  and  Bibles  are  circulated,  and  some  effects  might  be  expected, 
were  a  most  injurious  influence  not  exerted   by  European  visitore* 


54  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

These  alike  disgrace  themselves  and  the  religion  they  profess  by  drunk* 
ennees.  All  other  vices  are  common  in  Eio.  When  will  the  rays  of 
Divine  light  dispel  the  darkness  in  this  beautiful  empire?  The  climate 
is  delightfuL  I  wonder  if  disabled  Indian  missionaries  could  not  make 
themselves  useful  there." 

During  the  voyage  his  chief  friend  was  the  captain  of 
the  ship.  "He  was  very  obliging  to  me,"  says  Living- 
stone, "and  gave  me  all  the  information  respecting  the 
use  of  the  quadrant  in  his  power,  frequently  sitting  up 
till  twelve  o'clock  at  night  for  the  purpose  of  taking  lunar 
observations  with  me."  Thus  another  qualification  was 
acquired  for  his  very  peculiar  life-work.  Sundays  were 
not  times  of  refreshing,  at  least  not  beyond  his  closet. 
"  The  captain  rigged  out  the  church  on  Sundays,  and  we 
had  service;  but  I  being  a  poor  preacher,  and  the  chaplain 
addressing  them  all  as  Christians  already,  no  moral  influ- 
ence was  exerted,  and  even  had  there  been  on  Sabbath,  \\ 
would  have  been  neutralized  by  the  week-day  conduct 
In  fact,  no  good  was  done."  Neither  at  Rio,  nor  on  board 
ship,  nor  anywhere,  could  good  be  done  without  the  ele- 
ment of  personal  character.  This  was  Livingstone's  strong 
conviction  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

In  his  first  letter  to  the  Directors  of  the  London  Mis- 
sionary Society  he  tells  them  that  he  had  spent  most  of 
his  time  at  sea  in  the  study  of  theology,  and  that  he  was 
deeply  grieved  to  say  that  he  knew  of  no  spiritual  good 
having  been  done  in  the  case  of  any  one  on  board  the 
ship.  His  characteristic  honesty  thus  showed  itself  in  his 
very  first  dispatch. 

Arriving  at  the  Cape,  where  the  ship  was  detained  a 
month,  he  spent  some  time  with  Dr.  Philip,  then  acting  as 
agent  for  the  Society,  with  informal  powers  as  superinten- 
dent. Dr.  Philip  was  desirous  of  returning  home  for  a 
time,  and  very  anxious  to  find  some  one  to  take  his  place 
as  minister  of  the  congregation  of  Cape  Town,  in  his 
absence.      The    office  was  offered    to    Livingstone,  who 


FIRST  TWO  YEAE8  IN  AFRICA.  55 

rejected  it  with  no  little  emphasis — not  for  a  moment 
would  he  think  of  it,  nor  would  he  preach  the  gospel 
within  any  other  man's  line.  He  had  not  been  long  at 
the  Cape  when  he  found  to  his  surprise  and  sorrow  that 
the  missionaries  were  not  all  at  one,  either  as  to  the 
general  policy  of  the  mission,  or  in  the  matter  of  social 
intercourse  and  confidence.  The  shock  was  a  severe  one ; 
it  was  not  lessened  by  what  he  came  to  know  of  the  spirit 
and  life  of  a  few — happily  only  a  few — of  his  brethren 
afterward;  and  undoubtedly  it  had  an  influence  on  his 
future  life.  It  showed  him  that  there  were  missionaries 
whose  profession  was  not  supported  by  a  life  of  consistent 
well-doing,  although  it  did  not  shake  his  confidence  in  the 
character  and  the  work  of  missionaries  on  the  whole.  He 
saw  that  in  the  mission  there  was  what  might  be  called  a 
colonial  side  and  a  Dative  side ;  some  sympathizing  with 
the  colonists  and  some  with  the  natives.  He  had  no  dififi- 
culty  in  making  up  his  mind  between  them;  he  drew 
instinctively  to  the  party  that  were  for  protecting  the 
natives  against  the  unrighteous  encroachments  of  the 
settlers. 

On  leaving  the  ship  at  Algoa  Bay,  he  proceeded  by  land 
to  Kuruman  or  Lattakoo,  in  the  Bechuana  country,  the 
most  northerly  station  of  the  Society  in  South  Africa,  and 
the  usual  residence  of  Mr.  Moffat,  who  was  still  absent  in 
England.  In  this  his  first  African  journey  the  germ  of 
the  future  traveler  was  apparent.  "  Crossing  the  Orange 
River,"  he  says,  "  I  got  my  vehicle  aground,  and  my  oxen 
got  out  of  order,  some  with  their  heads  where  their  tails 
should  be,  and  others  with  their  heads  twisted  round  in 
the  yoke  so  far  that  they  appeared  bent  on  committing 
suicide,  or  overturning  the  wagon.  ...  I  like  travel- 
ling very  much  indeed.  There  is  so  much  freedom  con- 
nected with  our  African  manners.  We  pitch  our  tent, 
make  our  fire,  etc.,  wherever  we  choose,  walk,  ride,  or 
shoot  at.  abundance  of  all  sorts  of  game  as  our  inclination 


56  DAVID  LIVINGISTONE. 

leads  us ;  but  there  is  a  great  drawback :  we  can't  study  or 
read  when  we  please.  I  feel  this  very  much.  I  have 
made  but  very  little  progress  in  the  language  (can  speak 
a  little  Dutch),  but  I  long  for  the  time  when  I  shall  give 
my  undivided  attention  to  it,  and  then  be  furnished  with 
the  means  of  making  known  the  truth  of  the  gospel." 
While  at  the  Cape,  Livingstone  had  heard  something  of 
a  fresh-water  lake  ('Ngami)  which  all  the  missionaries 
were  eager  to  see.  If  only  they  would  give  him  a  month 
or  two  to  learn  the  colloquial  language,  he  said  they  might 
spare  themselves  the  pains  of  being  ''the  first  in  at  the 
death."  It  is  interesting  to  remark  farther  that,  in  this 
first  journey,  science  had  begun  to  receive  its  share  of 
attention.  He  is  already  bent  on  making  a  collection  for 
the  use  of  Professor  Owen,^  and  is  enthusiastic  in  describ- 
ing some  agatized  trees  and  other  curiosities  which  he  met 
with. 

Writing  to  his  parents  from  Port  Elizabeth,  19th  May, 
1841,  he  gives  his  first  impressions  of  Africa.  He  had 
been  at  a  station  called  Hankey : 

"The  scenery  was  very  fine.  The  white  sand  in  some  places  near 
the  beach  drifted  up  in  large  wreaths  exactly  like  snow.  One  might 
imagine  himself  in  Scotland  were  there  not  a  hot  sun  overhead.  The 
woods  present  an  aspect  of  strangeness,  for  everywhere  the  eye  meets 
the  foreign-looking  tree  from  which  the  bitter  aloes  is  extracted,  popping 
up  its  head  among  the  mimosa  bushes  and  stunted  acacias.  Beautiful 
humming-birds  fly  about  in  great  numbers,  sucking  the  nectar  from  the 
flowers,  which  are  in  great  abundance  and  very  beautiful.  I  was  much 
pleased  with  my  visit  to  Hankey.  .  .  .  The  state  of  the  people 
presents  so  many  features  of  interest,  that  one  may  talk  about  it  and 
convey  some  idea  of  what  the  Gospel  has  done.  The  full  extent  of  the 
benefit  received  can,  however,  be  understood  only  by  those  who  witness 
it  in  contrast  with  other  places  that  have  not  been  so  highly  favored. 
My  expectations  have  been  far  exceeded.  Everything  I  witnessed  sur- 
passed my  hopes,  and  if  this  one  station  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  whole, 
the  statements  of  the  missionaries  with  regard  to  their  success  are  far 
within  the  mark.     The  Hottentots  of  Hankey  appear  to  be  in  a  state 

^  This  collection  never  reached  its  destination. 


FIBST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA.  67 

similar  to  that  of  our  forefathers  in  the  days  immediately  preceding 
the  times  of  the  Covenanters.  They  have  a  prayer-meeting  every 
morning  at  four  o'clock,  and  well  attended.  They  began  it  during  a 
visitation  of  measles  among  them,  and  liked  it  so  much  that  they 
still  continue." 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  as  the  natives  had  no  clocks  or 
watches,  mistakes  sometimes  occurred  about  ringing  the 
bell  for  this  meeting,  and  sometimes  the  people  found 
themselves  assembled  at  twelve  or  one  o'clock  instead  of 
four.  The  welcome  to  the  missionaries  (their  own  mis- 
sionary was  returniug  from  the  Cape  with  Livingstone) 
was  wonderful.  Muskets  were  fired  at  their  approach, 
then  big  guns;  and  then  men,  women,  and  children 
rushed  at  the  top  of  their  speed  to  shake  hands  and 
welcome  them,  The  missionary  had  lost  a  little  boy,  and 
out  of  respect  each  of  the  people  had  something  black  on 
his  head.  Both  public  worship  and  family  worship  were 
very  interesting,  the  singing  of  hymns  being  very  beauti- 
ful. The  bearing  of  these  Christianized  Hottentots  was  in 
complete  contrast  to  that  of  a  Dutch  family  whom  he 
visited  as  a  medical  man  one  Sunday.  There  was  no 
Sunday;  the  man's  wife  and  daughters  were  dancing 
before  the  house,  while  a  black  played  the  fiddle. 

His  instructions  from  the  Directors  were  to  go  to  Kuru- 
man,  remain  there  till  Mr.  Moffat  should  return  from 
England,  and  turn  his  attention  to  the  formation  of  a  new 
station  farther  north,  awaiting  more  specific  instructions. 
He  arrived  at  Kuruman  on  the  31st  July,  1841,  but  no 
instuctions  had  come  from  the  Directors;  his  sphere  of 
work  was  quite  undetermined,  and  he  began  to  entertain 
the  idea  of  going  to  Abyssinia.  There  could  be  no  doubt 
that  a  Christian  missionary  was  needed  there,  for  the 
country  had  none ;  but  if  he  should  go,  he  felt  that  pro- 
bably he  would  never  return.  In  writing  of  this  to  his 
friend  Watt,  he  used  words  almost  prophetic :  "  Whatever 
way  my  life  may  be  spent  so  as  but  to  promote  the  glory 


58  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

of  our  gracious  God,  I  feel  anxious  to  do  it.  .  .  .  Mu 
life  may  be  spent  as  profitably  as  a  pioneer  as  in  any  other 
way." 

In  his  next  letter  to  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
dated  Kumman,  23d  September,  1841,  he  gives  his  impres- 
sions of  the  field,  and  unfolds  an  idea  which  took  hold  of 
him  at  the  very  beginning,  and  never  lost  its  grip.  It 
was,  that  there  was  not  population  enough  about  the 
South  to  justify  a  concentration  of  missionary  labor  there, 
and  that  the  policy  of  the  Society  ought  to  be  one  of 
expansion,  moving  out  far  and  wide  wherever  there  was 
an  opening,  and  making  the  utmost  possible  use  of  native 
agency,  in  order  to  cultivate  so  wide  a  field.  In  England 
ne  had  thought  that  Kuruman  might  be  made  a  great 
missionary  institute,  whence  the  beams  of  divine  truth 
might  diverge  in  every  direction,  through  native  agents 
supplied  from  among  the  converts ;  but  since  he  came  to 
the  spot  he  had  been  obliged  to  abandon  that  notion ;  not 
that  the  Kuruman  mission  had  not  been  successful,  or  that 
the  attendance  at  public  worship  was  small,  but  simply 
because  the  population  was  meagre,  and  seemed  more  likely 
to  become  smaller  than  larger.  The  field  from  which 
native  agents  might  be  drawn  was  thus  too  small.  Farther 
north  there  was  a  denser  population.  It  was  therefore  his 
purpose,  along  with  a  brother  missionary,  to  make  an  early 
journey  to  the  interior,  and  bury  himself  among  the 
natives,  to  learn  their  language,  and  slip  into  their  modes 
of  thinking  and  feeling.  He  purposed  to  take  with  him 
two  of  the  best  qualified  native  Christians  of  Kuruman,  to 
plant  them  as  teachers  in  some  promising  locality ;  and  in 
case  any  difficulty  should  arise  about  their  maintenance, 
he  offered,  with  characteristic  generosity,  to  defray  the  cost 
of  one  of  them  from  his  own  resources. 

Accordingly,  in  company  with  a  brother  missionary  from 
Kuruman,  a  journey  of  seven  hundred  miles  was  performed 
before  the  eod  of  the  year,  leading  chiefly  to  two  results: 


FIRST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA,  59 

in  the  first  place,  a  strong  confirmation  of  his  views  on 
the  subject  of  native  agency ;  and  in  the  second  place,  the 
selection  of  a  station,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  north  of 
Kuruman,  as  the  most  suitable  for  missionary  operations 
Seven  hundred  miles  traveled  over  more  Africano  seemed 
to  indicate  a  vast  territory ;  but  on  looking  at  it  on  the 
map,  it  was  a  mere  speck  on  the  continent  of  heathenism. 
How  was  that  continent  ever  to  be  evangelized  ?  He  could  i 
think  of  no  method  except  an  extensive  method  of  native  /  W^ 
agency.  And  the  natives,  when  qualified,  were  admirably 
qualified.  Their  warm,  affectionate  manner  of  dealing 
with  their  fellow-men,  their  ability  to  present  the  truth  to 
their  minds  freed  from  the  strangeness  of  which  foreigners 
could  not  divest  it,  and  the  eminent  success  of  those 
employed  by  the  brethren  of  Griqua  Town,  were  greatly 
in  their  favor.  Two  natives  had  likewise  been  employed 
recently  by  the  Kuruman  Mission,  and  these  had  been 
highly  efficient  and  successful.  If  the  Directors  would 
allow  him  to  employ  more  of  these,  conversions  would  in- 
crease in  a  compound  ratio,  and  regions  not  yet  explored  by 
Europeans  would  soon  be  supplied  with  the  bread  of  life. 

In  regard  to  the  spot  selected  for  a  mission,  there  were 
toany   considerations    in  its    favor.      In  the    immediate 
neighborhood  of  Kuruman  the  chiefs  hated  the  gospel, 
because  it  deprived  them  of  their  supernumerary  wives. 
In  the  region  farther  north,  this  feeling  had  not  yet  estab- 
lished  itself;   on  the  contrary,  there  was  an   impression 
favorable  to  Europeans,  and  a  desire  for  their  alliance. 
These    Bechuana    tribes    had    suffered    much  from    the 
marauding  invasions  of  their  neighbors;  and  recently,  the 
most  terrible  marauder  of  the  country,  Mosilikatse,  after 
being  driven  westward  by  the  Dutch  Boers,  had  taken  up      I 
his  abode  on  the  banks  of  a  central  lake,  and  resumed  his      1 
raids,  which  were  keeping  the  whole  country  in  alarm.      I 
The  more  peacefal  tribes  had  heard  of  the  value  of  the 
white  man,  and  of  the  weapons  by  which  a  mere  handfu'     ' 


60  DAVID  LIYINGSTONR 

of  whites  had  repulsed  hordes  of  marauders.  They  were 
therefore  disposed  to  welcome  the  stranger,  although  this 
state  of  feeling  could  not  be  relied  on  as  sure  to  continue, 
for  Griqua  hunters  and  individuals  from  tribes  hostile  to 
the  gospel  were  moving  northward,  and  not  only  circula- 
ting rumors  unfavorable  to  missionaries,  but  by  their 
wicked  lives  introducing  diseases  previously  unknown. 
If  these  regions,  therefore,  were  to  be  taken  possession  of  by 
the  gospel,  no  time  was  to  be  lost.  For  himself,  Living- 
stone had  no  hesitation  in  going  to  reside  in  the  midst  of 
these  savages,  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  civilization, 
not  merely  for  a  visit,  but,  if  necessary,  for  the  whole  of 
his  life. 

In  writing  to  his  sisters  after  this  journey  (8th  Decem- 
ber, 1841),  he  gives  a  graphic  account  of  the  country,  and 
some  interesting  notices  of  the  people: 

"Janet,  I  suppose,  will  feel  anxious  to  know  v  hat  our  dinner  was. 

"We  boiled  a  piece  of  the  flesh  of  a  rhinoceros  which  was  toughness 
itself,  the  night  before.  The  meat  was  our  supper,  and  porridge  made 
of  Indian  corn-meal  and  gravy  of  the  meat  made  a  very  good  dinner 
next  day.  When  about  150  miles  from  home  we  came  to  a  large 
village.  The  chief  had  sore  eyes ;  I  doctored  them,  and  he  fed  ua 
pretty  well  with  milk  and  beans,  and  sent  a  fine  buck  after  me  as  a 
present.  When  we  had  got  about  ten  or  twelve  miles  on  the  way,  a 
little  girl  about  eleven  or  twelve  years  of  age  came  up  and  sat  down 
under  my  wagon,  having  run  away  for  the  purpose  of  coming  with  us 
to  Kuruman.  She  had  lived  with  a  sister  whom  she  had  lately  lost  by 
death.  Another  family  took  possession  of  her  for  the  purpose  of  selling 
her  as  soon  as  she  was  old  enough  for  a  wife.  But  not  liking  this,  she 
determined  to  run  away  from  them  and  come  to  some  friends  neai 
Kuruman.  With  this  intention  she  came,  and  thought  of  walking  all 
the  way  behind  my  wagon.  I  was  pleased  with  the  determination  of 
the  little  creature,  and  gave  her  some  food.  But  before  we  had  remained 
long  there,  I  heard  her  sobbing  violently,  as  if  her  heart  would  break. 
On  looking  round,  I  observed  the  cause.  A  man  with  a  gun  had  been 
Bent  after  her,  and  he  had  just  arrived.  I  did  not  know  well  what  to 
do  now,  but  1  was  not  in  perplexity  long,  for  Pomare,  a  native  convert 
who  accompanied  us,  started  up  and  defended  her  cause.  He  being  the 
•OD  of  a  chief,  and  possessed  of  some  little  authority,  managed  the 


FIEST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA,  61 

matter  nicely.  She  had  beea  loaded  with  beads  to  render  her  mor« 
attractive,  and  fetch  a  higher  price.  These  she  stripped  off  and  gave 
to  the  man,  and  desired  him  to  go  away.  I  afterward  took  meaaurea 
for  hiding  her,  and  though  fifty  men  had  come  for  her,  they  would  not 
have  got  her." 

The  story  reads  like  an  allegory  or  a  prophecy.  In  the 
person  of  the  little  maid,  oppressed  and  enslaved  Africa 
comes  to  the  good  Doctor  for  protection ;  instinctively  she 
knows  she  may  trust  him;  his  heart  opens  at  once,  his 
ingenuity  contrives  a  way  of  protection  and  deliverance, 
and  he  will  never  give  her  up.  It  is  a  little  picture  of 
Livingstone's  life. 

In  fulfillment  of  a  promise  made  to  the  natives  in  the  in- 
terior that  he  would  return  to  them,  Livingstone  set  out  on  a 
second  tour  into  the  interior  of  the  Bechuana  country  on 
10th  February,  1842.  His  objects  were,  first,  to  acquire  the 
native  language  more  perfectly,  and  second,  by  suspending 
his  medical  practice,  which  had  become  inconveniently 
large  at  Kuruman,  to  give  his  undivided  attention  to  the 
subject  of  native  agents.  He  took  with  him  two  native 
members  of  the  Kuruman  church,  and  two  other  natives 
for  the  management  of  the  wagon. 

The  first  person  that  specially  engaged  his  interest  in 
this  journey  was  a  chief  of  th«  name  of  Bubi,  whose  people 
were  Bakwains.  With  him  he  stationed  one  of  the  native 
agents  as  a  teacher,  the  chief  himself  collecting  the  children 
and  supplying  them  with  food.  The  honesty  of  the  people 
was  shown  in  their  leaving  untouched  all  the  contents  of 
his  wagon,  though  crowds  of  them  visited  it.  Livingstone 
was  already  acquiring  a  powerful  influence,  both  with  chiefs 
and  people,  the  result  of  his  considerate  and  conciliatory 
treatment  of  both.  He  had  already  observed  the  failure 
of  some  of  his  brethren  to  influence  them,  and  his  sagacity 
had  discerned  the  cause.  His  success  in  inducing  Bubi's 
people  to  dig  a  canal  was  contrasted  in  a  characteristic 
passage  of  a  private  letter,  with  the  experience  of  others^ 
6 


62  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

"  The  doctor  and  the  rainmaker  among  these  people  are  one  and  the 
same  person.  As  I  did  not  like  to  be  behind  my  professional  brethren, 
I  declared  I  could  make  rain  too,  not,  however,  by  enchantments  like 
them,  but  by  leading  out  their  river  for  irrigation.  The  idea  pleased 
mightily,  and  to  work  we  went  instanter.  Even  the  chiefs  own  doctor 
is  at  it,  and  works  like  a  good  fellow,  laughing  heartily  at  the  cunning 
of  the  'foreigner'  who  can  make  rain  so.  We  have  only  one  spade,  and 
this  is  without  a  handle ;  and  yet  by  means  of  sticks  sharpened  to  a 
point  we  have  performed  all  the  digging  of  a  pretty  long  canal.  The 
earth  was  lifted  out  in  'gowpens'  and  carried  to  the  huge  dam  we  have 
built  in  karosses  (skin  cloaks),  tortoise-shells,  or  wooden  bowls.  We 
intended  nothing  of  the  ornamental  in  it,  but  when  we  came  to  a  huge 
stone,  we  were  forced  to  search  for  a  way  round  it.  The  consequence 
is,  it  has  assumed  a  beautifully  serpentine  appearance.  This  is,  I 
believe,  the  first  instance  in  which  Bechuanas  have  been  got  to  work 
without  wages.  It  was  with  the  utmost  difl&culty  the  earlier  mission- 
aries got  them  to  do  anything.  The  missionaries  solicited  their  per- 
mission to  do  wnat  they  did,  and  this  was  the  very  way  to  make  them 
show  off  their  airs,  for  they  are  so  disobliging ;  if  they  perceive  any  one 
in  the  least  dependent  upon  them,  they  immediately  begin  to  tyrannize, 
A  more  mean  and  selfish  vice  certainly  does  not  exist  in  the  world.  I 
am  trying  a  different  plan  with  them.  I  make  my  presence  with  any 
of  them  a  favor,  and  when  they  show  any  impudence,  I  threaten  to 
leave  them,  and  if  they  don't  amend,  I  put  my  threat  into  execution. 
By  a  bold,  free  course  among  them  I  have  had  not  the  least  difiiculty  in 
managing  the  most  fierce.  They  are  in  one  sense  fierce,  and  in  another 
the  greatest  cowards  in  the  world.  A  kick  would,  I  am  persuaded, 
quell  the  courage  of  the  bravest  of  them.  Add  to  this  the  report  which 
many  of  them  verily  believe,  that  I  am  a  great  wizard,  and  you  will 
understand  how  I  can  with  ease  visit  any  of  them.  Those  who  do  not 
love,  fear  me,  and  so  truly  in  their  eyes  am  I  possessed  of  supernatural 
power,  some  have  not  hesitated  to  afiirm  I  am  capable  of  even  raising  the 
dead  1  The  people  of  a  village  visited  by  a  French  brother  actually 
believed  it.  Their  belief  of  my  powers,  I  suppose,  accounts,  too,  for  the 
fact  that  I  have  not  missed  a  single  article  either  from  the  house  or 
wagon  since  I  came  among  them,  and  this^  although  all  my  things  lay 
scattered  about  the  room,  while  crammed  with  patients." 

It  was  unfortunate  that  the  teacher  whom  Livingstone 
stationed  with  Bubi's  people  was  seized  with  a  violent 
fever,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  bring  him  away.  As  for 
Bubi  himself,  he  was  afterward  burned  to  death  by  an 
explosion  of  gunpowder,  which  one  of  his  sorcerers  was 
trying,  by  means  of  burnt  roots,  to  itn-bewitch. 


FIRST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA,  68 

In  advancing,  Livingstone  had  occasion  to  pass  through 
a  part  of  the  great  Kalahari  desert,  and  here  he  met  with 
Sekomi,  a  chief  of  the  Bamangwato,  from  whom  also  he 
received  a  most  friendly  reception.  The  ignorance  of  thia 
tribe  he  found  to  be  exceedingly  great : 

*'  Their  conceptions  of  the  Deity  are  of  the  most  vague  and  contara* 
dictory  nature,  and  the  name  of  God  conveys  no  more  to  their  under- 
standing than  the  idea  of  superiority.  Hence  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
apply  the  name  to  their  chiefs.  I  was  every  day  shocked  by  being 
addressed  by  that  title,  and  though  it  as  often  furnished  me  with  a  text 
from  which  to  tell  them  of  the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom 
he  has  sent,  yet  it  deeply  pained  me,  and  I  never  felt  so  fully  convinced 
of  the  lamentable  detonation  of  our  species.  It  is  indeed  a  mournftd 
truth  that  man  has  become  like  the  beasts  that  perish." 

The  place  was  greatly  infested  by  lions,  and  during 
Livingstone's  visit  an  awful  occurrence  took  place  that 
made  a  great  impression  on  him : 

**  A.  woman  was  actually  devoured  in  her  garden  during  my  visit,  and 
that  so  near  the  town  that  I  had  frequently  walked  past  it.  It  was 
most  affecting  to  hear  the  cries  of  the  orphan  children  of  this  woman. 
During  the  whole  day  after  her  death  the  surrounding  rocks  and  valleys 
rang  and  re-echoed  with  their  bitter  cries.  I  frequently  thought  as  I 
listened  to  the  loud  sobs,  painfully  indicative  of  the  sorrows  of  those 
who  have  no  hope,  that  if  some  of  our  churches  could  have  heard  their 
sad  wailings,  it  would  have  awakened  the  firm  resolution  to  do  more  for 
the  heathen  than  they  have  done." 

Poor  Sekomi  advanced  a  new  theory  of  regeneration 
which  Livingstone  was  unable  to  work  out : 

"  On  one  occasion  Sekomi,  having  sat  by  me  in  the  hut  for  some  time 
In  deep  thought,  at  length  addressing  me  by  a  pompous  title  said,  '  I 
wish  you  would  change  my  heart.  Give  me  medicine  to  change  it,  for 
it  is  proud,  proud  and  angry,  angry  always.*  I  lifted  up  the  Testament 
and  was  about  to  tell  him  of  the  only  way  in  which  the  heart  can  be 
changed,  but  he  interrupted  me  by  saying,  ^Nay,  I  wish  to  have  it 
changed  by  medicine,  to  drink  and  have  it  changed  at  once,  for  it  is 
always  very  proud  and  very  uneasy,  and  continually  angry  with  some 
<Mie.'    He  then  rose  and  went  away." 


64  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

A  third  tribe  visited  at  this  time  was  the  Bakaa,  and 
here,  too,  Livingstone  was  able  to  put  in  force  his  wonder- 
ful powers  of  management.  Shortly  before,  the  Bakaa  had 
murdered  a  trader  and  his  company.  When  Livingstone 
appeared  their  consciences  smote  them,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  the  chief  and  two  attendants,  the  whole  of  the 
people  fled  from  his  presence.  Nothing  could  allay  their 
terror,  till,  a  dish  of  porridge  having  been  prepared,  they 
saw  Livingstone  partake  of  it  along  with  themselves  with- 
out distrust.  When  they  saw  him  lie  down  and  fall  asleep 
they  were  quite  at  their  ease.  Thereafter  he  began  to 
speak  to  them : 

"  I  had  more  than  ordinary  pleasure  in  telling  these  murderers  of  the 
precious  blood  which  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  I  bless  Grod  that  He  has 
conferred  on  one  so  worthless  the  distinguished  privilege  and  honor  of 
being  the  first  messenger  of  mercy  that  ever  trod  these  regions.  Its 
being  also  the  first  occasion  on  which  I  had  ventured  to  address  a 
number  of  Bechuanas  in  their  own  tongue  without  reading  it,  renders 
it  to  myself  one  of  peculiar  interest.  I  felt  more  freedom  than  I  had 
anticipated,  but  I  have  an  immense  amount  of  labor  still  before  me,  ere 
I  can  call  myself  a  master  of  Sichuana.  This  journey  discloses  to  me 
that  when  I  have  acquired  the  Batlapi,  there  is  another  and  perhaps 
more  arduous  task  to  be  accomplished  in  the  other  dialects,  but  by  the 
Divine  assistance  I  hope  I  shall  be  enabled  to  conquer.  When  I  lefl 
the  Bakaa,  the  chief  sent  his  son  with  a  number  of  his  people  to  see 
me  safe  part  of  the  way  to  the  Makalaka." 

On  his  way  home,  in  passing  through  Bubi's  country,  he 
was  visited  by  sixteen  of  the  people  of  Sebehwe,  a  chief 
who  had  successfully  withstood  Mosilikatse,  but  whose 
cowardly  neighbors,  under  the  influence  of  jealousy,  had 
banded  together  to  deprive  him  of  what  they  had  not  had 
the  courage  to  defend.  Consequently  he  had  been  driven 
into  the  sandy  desert,  and  his  object  in  sending  to  Living- 
stone was  to  solicit  his  advice  and  protection,  as  he  wished 
to  come  out,  in  order  that  his  people  might  grow  corn,  etc. 
Sebehwe,  like  many  of  the  other  people  of  the  country,  had 
the  notion  that  if  he  got  a  single  white  man  to  live  with 


FIBJST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA.  65 

him,  lie  would  be  quite  secure.  It  was  no  wonder  that 
Livingstone  early  acquired  the  strong  conviction  that  if 
missions  could  only  be  scattered  over  Africa,  their  imme- 
diate effect  in  promoting  the  tranquillity  of  the  continent 
could  hardly  be  over-estimated. 

We  have  given  these  details  somewhat  fully,  because 
they  show  that  before  he  had  been  a  year  in  the  country 
Livingstone  had  learned  how  to  rule  the  Africans.  From 
the  very  first,  his  genial  address,  simple  and  fearless 
manner,  and  transparent  kindliness  formed  a  spell  which 
rarely  failed.  He  had  great  faith  in  the  power  of  humor. 
He  was  never  afraid  of  a  man  who  had  a  hearty  laugh. 
By  a  playful  way  of  dealing  with  the  people,  he  made  them 
feel  at  ease  with  him,  and  afterward  he  could  be  solemn 
enough  when  the  occasion  required.  His  medical  knowl- 
edge helped  him  greatly ;  but  for  permanent  influence  all 
would  have  been  in  vain  if  he  had  not  uniformly  observed 
the  rules  of  justice,  good  feeling,  and  good  manners.  Often 
he  would  say  that  the  true  road  to  influence  was  patient 
continuance  in  well-doing.  It  is  remarkable  that,  from 
the  very  first,  he  should  have  seen  the  charm  of  that 
method  which  he  employed  so  successfully  to  the  end. 

In  the  course  of  this  journey,  Livingstone  was  within 
ten  days  of  Lake  'Ngami,  the  lake  of  which  he  had  heard 
at  the  Cape,  and  which  he  actually  discovered  in  1849; 
and  he  might  have  discovered  it  now,  had  discovery  alone 
been  his  object.  Part  of  his  journey  was  performed  on 
foot,  in  consequence  of  the  draught  oxen  having  become 
sick: 

"Some  of  my  companions,"  he  says  in  his  first  book,  "who  had 
yecently  joined  us,  and  did  not  know  that  I  understood  a  little  of  their 
epeech,  were  overheard  by  me  discussing  my  appearance  and  powers : 
*  He  is  not  strong,  he  is  quite  slim,  and  only  appears  stout  because  he 
T)uts  himself  in  those  bags  (trousers) ;  he  will  soon  knock  up.'  This 
^i,used  my  Highland  blood  to  rise,  and  made  me  d^pise  the  fatigue  of 
keeping  them  all  at  the  top  of  their  speed  for  days  together,  and  until  I 
hea*^  thesa  expressing  proper  opinions  of  my  pedestrian  powers.'* 


86  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

We  have  seen  how  full  Livingstone^s  heart  was  of  the 
missionary  spirit;  how  intent  he  was  on  making  friends 
of  the  natives,  and  how  he  could  already  preach  in  one 
dialect,  and  was  learning  another.  But  the  activity  of 
his  mind  enabled  him  to  give  attention  at  the  same  time 
to  other  matters.  He  was  already  pondering  the  structure 
of  the  great  African  Continent,  and  carefully  investigating 
the  process  of  desiccation  that  had  been  going  on  for  a 
long  time,  and  had  left  much  uncomfortable  evidence  of 
its  activity  in  many  parts.  In  the  desert,  he  informs  his 
friend  Watt  that  no  fewer  than  thirty-two  edible  roots  and 
forty-three  fruits  grew  without  cultivation.  He  had  the 
rare  faculty  of  directing  his  mind  at  the  full  stretch  of  its 
power  to  one  great  object,  and  yet,  apparently  without 
effort,  giving  minute  and  most  careful  attention  to  many 
other  matters, — all  bearing,  however,  on  the  same  great 
end. 

A  very  interesting  letter  to  Dr.  Risdon  Bennett,  dated 
Kuruman,  18th  December,  1841,  gives  an  account  of  his 
first  year's  work  from  the  medical  and  scientific  point  of 
view.  First,  he  gives  an  amusing  picture  of  the  Bechuana 
chiefs,  and  then  some  details  of  his  medical  practice : 

The  people  are  all  under  the  feudal  system  of  government,  the  chief- 
tainship is  hereditary,  and  although  the  chief  is  usually  the  greatest  ass, 
and  the  most  insignificant  of  the  tribe  in  appearance,  the  people  pay  a 
deference  to  him  which  is  truly  astonishing.  ...  I  feel  the  benefit 
often  of  your  instructions,  and  of  those  I  got  through  your  kindness. 
Here  I  have  an  immense  practice.  I  have  patients  now  under  treatment 
who  have  walked  130  miles  for  my  advice;  and  when  these  go  home, 
others  will  come  for  the  same  purpose.  This  is  the  country  for  a  medical 
man  if  he  wants  a  large  practice,  but  he  must  leave  fees  out  of  the  ques 
tion  !  The  Bechuanas  have  a  great  deal  more  disease  than  I  expected 
to  find  among  a  savage  nation  •,  but  little  else  can  be  expected,  for  they 
are  nearly  naked,  and  endure  the  scorching  heat  of  the  day  and  the 
chills  of  the  night  in  that  condition.  Add  to  this  that  they  are  abso- 
lutely omnivorous.  Indigestion,  rheumatism,  opthalmia  are  the  pre- 
vailing diseases.  .  .  .  Many  very  bad  cases  were  brought  to  me, 
•od  sometimes,  when  traveling,  my  wagon  was  quite  besieged  by  their 


FIRST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA.  67 

blind  and  halt  and  lame.  What  a  mighty  effect  would  be  produced  if 
one  of  the  seventy  disciples  were  among  them  to  heal  them  all  by  a 
wordl  The  Bechuanas  resort  to  the  Bushmen  and  the  poor  people  that 
live  in  the  desert  for  doctors.  The  fact  of  my  dealing  in  that  line  a  little 
is  so  strange,  and  now  my  fame  has  spread  far  and  wide.  But  if  one  of 
Christ's  apostles  were  here,  I  should  think  he  would  be  very  soon  known 
all  over  the  continent  to  Abyssinia.  The  great  deal  of  work  I  have  had 
to  do  in  attending  to  the  sick  has  proved  beneficial  to  me,  for  they  make 
me  speak  the  language  perpetually,  a,nd  if  I  were  inclined  to  be  lazy  in 
learning  it,  they  would  prevent  me  indulging  the  propensity.  And  they 
are  excellent  patients,  too,  besides.  There  is  no  wincing ;  everything 
prescribed  is  done  instanter.  Their  only  failing  is  that  they  become 
tired  of  a  long  course.  But  in  any  operation,  even  the  women  sit 
unmoved.  I  have  been  quite  astonished  again  and  again  at  their  calm- 
ness. In  cutting  out  a  tumor,  an  inch  in  diameter,  they  sit  and  talk  as 
if  they  felt  nothing.  '  A  man  like  me  never  cries,'  they  say,  Hhey  are 
children  that  cry.'  And  it  is  a  fact  that  the  men  never  cry.  But  when 
the  Spirit  of  God  works  on  their  minds  they  cry  most  piteously.  Some- 
times in  church  they  endeavor  to  screen  themselves  from  the  eyes  of  the 
preacher  by  hiding  under  the  forms  or  covering  their  heads  with  their 
karosses  as  a  remedy  against  their  convictions.  And  when  they  find 
that  won't  do,  they  rush  out  of  the  church  and  run  with  all  their  might, 
crying  as  if  the  hand  of  death  were  behind  them.  One  would  think, 
when  they  got  away,  there  they  would  remain ;  but  no,  there  they  are 
in  their  places  at  the  very  next  meeting.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  they  should  exhibit  agitations  of  body  when  the  mind  is  affected, 
as  they  are  quite  unaccustomed  to  restrain  their  feelings.  But  that  the 
hardened  beings  should  be  moved  mentally  at  all  is  wonderful  indeed. 
If  you  saw  them  in  their  savage  state  you  would  feel  the  force  of  this 
more.  .  .  .  N.B. — I  have  got  for  Professor  Owen  specimens  of  the 
incubated  ostrich  in  abundance,  and  am  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to 
transmit  the  box  to  the  college.  I  tried  to  keep  for  you  some  of  the 
fine  birds  of  the  interior,  but  the  weather  was  so  horribly  hot  they  were 
putrid  in  a  few  hours. 

When  he  returned  to  Kumman  in  June,  1842,  he  found 
that  no  instructions  had  as  yet  come  from  the  Directors  as 
to  his  permanent  quarters.  He  was  preparing  for  another 
journey  when  news  arrived  that,  contrary  to  his  advice, 
Sebehwe  had  left  the  desert  where  he  was  encamped,  had 
been  treacherously  attacked  by  the  chief  Mahura,  and  that 
many  erf  his  people,  including  women  and  children,  had 


68  DAVID  LIVINOSTONE, 

been  savagely  murdered.  What  aggravated  the  case  was 
that  several  native  Christians  from  Kuruman  had  been  at 
the  time  with  Sebehwe,  and  that  these  were  accused  of 
having  acted  treacherously  by  him.  But  now  no  native 
would  expose  himself  to  the  expected  rage  of  Sebehwe,  so 
that  for  want  of  attendants  Livingstone  could  not  go  to 
him.  He  was  obliged  to  remain  for  some  months  aboul 
Kuruman,  itinerating  to  the  neighboring  tribes,  and  taking 
part  in  the  routine  work  of  the  station :  that  is  to  say  preach- 
ing, printing,  building  a  chapel  at  an  out-station,  prescrib- 
ing for  the  sick,  and  many  things  else  that  would  have 
been  intolerable,  he  said,  to  a  man  of  "  clerical  dignity." 

He  was  able  to  give  his  father  a  very  encouraging  report 
of  the  mission  work  (July  13,  1842) :  "  The  work  of  God 
goes  on  here  notwithstanding  all  our  infirmities.  Souls 
are  gathered  in  continually,  and  sometimes  from  among 
those  you  would  never  have  expected  to  see  turning  to  the 
Lord.  Twenty-four  were  added  to  the  Church  last  month, 
and  there  are  several  inquirers.  At  Motito,  a  French 
station  about  thirty-three  miles  northeast  of  this,  there 
has  been  an  awakening,  and  I  hope  much  good  will 
result.  I  have  good  news,  too,  from  Rio  de  Janeiro.  The 
Bibles  that  have  been  distributed  are  beginning  to  cause  a 
stir." 

The  state  of  the  country  continued  so  disturbed  that  it 
was  not  till  February,  1843,  that  he  was  able  to  set  out  for 
the  village  where  Sebehwe  had  taken  up  his  residence 
with  the  remains  of  his  tribe.  This  visit  he  undertook  at 
great  personal  risk.  Though  looking  at  first  very  ill- 
pleased,  Sebehwe  treated  him  in  a  short  time  in  a  most 
friendly  way,  and  on  the  Sunday  after  his  arrival,  sent  a 
herald  to  proclaim  that  on  that  day  nothing  should  be 
done  but  pray  to  God  and  listen  to  the  words  of  the 
foreigner.  He  himself  listened  with  great  attention  while 
Livingstone  told  him  of  Jesus  and  the  resurrection,  and 
the  missionary  was  often  interrupted  by  the  question*  of 


FIRST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA.  69 

the  chief.  Here,  then,  was  another  chief  pacified,  and 
brought  under  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 

Livingstone  then  passed  on  to  the  country  of  the  Ba- 
khatla,  where  he  had  purposed  to  erect  his  mission-station. 
The  country  was  fertile,  and  the  people  industrious,  and 
among  other  industries  was  an  iron  manufactory,  to  which 
as  a  bachelor  he  got  admission,  whereas  married  men  were 
wont  to  be  excluded,  through  fear  that  they  would  bewitch 
the  iron  I  When  he  asked  the  chief  if  he  would  like  him 
to  come  aud  be  his  missionary,  he  held  up  his  hands  and 
said,  "Oh,  I  shall  dance  if  you  do;  I  shall  collect  all  my 
people  to  hoe  for  you  a  garden,  and  you  will  get  more 
sweet  reed  and  corn  than  myself."  The  cautious  Directors 
at  home,  however,  had  sent  no  instructions  as  to  Living- 
stone's station,  and  he  could  only  say  to  the  chief  that  h^ 
would  tell  them  of  his  desire  for  a  missionary. 

At  a  distance  of  five  days'  journey  beyond  the  Bakhatla 
was  situated  the  village  of  Sech^le,  chief  of  the  Bakwains, 
afterward  one  of  Livingstone's  greatest  friends.  Sechele 
had  been  enraged  at  him  for  not  visiting  him  the  year 
before,  and  threatened  him  with  mischief.  It  happened 
that  his  only  child  was  ill  when  the  missionary  arrived, 
and  also  the  child  of  one  of  his  principal  men.  Living- 
stone's treatment  of  both  was  successful,  and  Sechele  had 
not  an  angry  word.  Some  of  his  questions  struck  the 
heart  of  the  missionary : 

"  *  Since  it  is  true  that  all  who  die  unforgiven  are  lost  forever,  why 
did  your  nation  not  come  to  tell  us  of  it  before  now?  My  ancestors  are 
all  gone,  and  none  of  them  knew  anything  of  what  you  tell  me.  How 
is  this  ?'  I  thought  immediately,"  says  Livingstone,  '^  of  the  guilt  o^ 
the  Church,  but  did  not  confess.  I  told  him  multitudes  in  our  own 
country  were  like  himself,  so  much  in  love  with  their  sins.  My  ances- 
tors had  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  in  trying  to  persuade  them,  and  yet 
after  all  many  of  them  by  refusing  were  lost.  We  now  wish  to  tell  all 
the  world  about  a  Saviour,  and  if  men  did  cot  believe,  the  guilt  would 
be  entirely  theirs.  Sechele  has  been  driven  from  another  part  of  hia 
eountry  from  that  in  which  he  was  located  last  year,  and  so  has  Bubi^ 


70  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

so  that  the  prospects  I  had  of  benefiting  them  by  native  teachers  are 

for  the  present  darkened." 

Among  other  things  that  Livingstone  found  time  for  in 
these  wanderings  among  strange  people,  was  translating 
hymns  into  the  Sichuana  language.  Writing  to  his  father 
(Bakwain  Country,  21st  March,  1843),  he  says  ; 

"Janet  may  be  pleased  to  learn  that  I  am  become  a  poet,  or  rather  a 
poetaster,  in  Sichuana.  Half  a  dozen  of  my  hymns  were  lately  printed 
in  a  collection  of  the  French  brethren.  One  of  them  is  a  translation 
of  "  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood ;'  another,  '  Jesus  shall  reign 
where'er  the  sun;'  others  are  on  *The  earth  being  filled  with  the  glory 
of  the  Lord,'  'Self-dedication,*  *  Invitation  to  Sinners,'  'The  soul  that 
loves  God  finds  him  everywhere.*  Janet  may  try  to  make  English  ones 
on  these  latter  subjects  if  she  can,  and  Agnes  will  doubtless  set  them  to 
music  on  the  same  condition.  I  do  not  boast  of  having  done  this,  but 
only  mention  it  to  let  you  know  that  I  am  getting  a  little  better  fitted 
for  the  great  work  of  a  missionary,  that  your  hearts  may  be  drawn  out 
to  more  prayer  for  the  success  of  the  gospel  proclaimed  by  my  feeble 
Hps." 

Livingstone  was  bent  on  advancing  in  the  direction  of 
the  country  of  the  Matebele  and  their  chief  Mosilikatae, 
but  the  dread  of  that  terrible  warrior  prevented  him  from 
getting  Bakwains  to  accompany  him,  and  being  thus 
unable  to  rig  out  a  wagon,  he  was  obliged  to  travel  on 
oxback.  In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Bisdon  Bennett  (30th  June, 
1843),  he  gives  a  lively  description  of  this  mode  of  travel- 
ing: "It  is  rough  traveling,  as  you  can  conceive.  The 
skin  is  so  loose  there  is  no  getting  one's  great-coat,  which 
has  to  serve  both  as  saddle  and  blanket,  to  stick  on ;  and 
then  the  long  horns  in  front,  with  which  he  can  give  one 
a  punch  in  the  abdomen  if  he  likes,  make  us  sit  as  bolt 
upright  as  dragoons.  In  this  manner  I  traveled  more 
than  400  miles."  Visits  to  some  of  the  villages  of  the 
Bakalahari  gave  him  much  pleasure.  He  was  listened  to 
with  great  attention,  and  while  sitting  by  their  fires  and 
listening  to  their  traditionary  tales,  he  intermingled  the 
gtory  of  the  Cross  with  their  conversation,  and  it  was  by 


FIRST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA,  71 

far  the  happiest  portion  of  his  journey.  The  people  were 
a  poor,  degraded,  enslaved  race,  who  hunted  for  other 
tribes  to  procure  them  skins;  they  were  far  from  wells, 
and  had  their  gardens  far  from  their  houses,  in  order  to 
have  their  produce  safe  from  the  chiefs  who  visited  them. 

Coming  on  to  his  old  friends  the  Bakaa,  he  found  them 
out  of  humor  with  him,  accusing  him  of  having  given 
poison  to  a  native  who  had  been  seized  With  fever  on  occa- 
sion of  his  former  visit.  Consequently  he  could  get  little 
or  nothing  to  eat,  and  had  to  content  himself,  as  he  wrote 
to  his  friends,  with  the  sumptuous  feasts  of  his  imagina- 
tion. With  his  usual  habit  of  discovering  good  in  all  his 
troubles,  however,  he  found  cause  for  thankfulness  at  their 
stinginess,  for  in  coming  down  a  steep  pass,  absorbed  with 
the  questions  which  the  people  were  putting  to  him,  he 
forgot  where  he  was,  lost  his  footing,  and,  striking  his 
hand  between  a  rock  and  his  Bible  which  he  was  carry- 
ing, he  suffered  a  compound  fracture  of  his  finger.  His 
involuntary  low  diet  saved  him  from  taking  fever,  and  the 
finger  was  healing  favorably,  when  a  sudden  visit  in  the 
middle  of  the  night  from  a  lion,  that  threw  them  all  into 
consternation,  made  him,  without  thinking,  discharge  his 
revolver  at  the  visitor,  and  the  recoil  hurt  him  more  than 
the  shot  did  the  lion.  It  rebroke  his  finger,  and  the 
second  fracture  was  worse  than  the  first.  "The  Bak- 
wains,"  he  says,  "who  were  most  attentive  to  my  wants 
during  the  whole  journey  of  more  than  400  miles,  tried  to 
comfort  me  when  they  saw  the  blood  again  flowing,  by 
saying,  *You  have  hurt  yourself,  but  you  have  redeemed 
us:  henceforth  we  will  only  swear  by  you.'  Poor  crea- 
tures," he  writes  to  Dr.  Bennett,  "  I  wished  they  had  felt 
gratitude  for  the  blood  that  was  shed  for  their  precious 
souls." 

Returning  to  Kuruman  from  this  journey,  in  June,  1843, 
Livingstone  was  delighted  to  find  ai  length  a  letter  from 
tiie  Directors  of  the  Sodety  authorizing  the  formation  of  a 


72  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

settlement  in  the  regions  beyond.  He  found  another  letter 
that  greatly  cheered  him,  from  a  Mrs.  M'Robert,  the  wife 
of  an  Independent  minister  at  Cambuslang  (near  Blan- 
tyre),  who  had  collected  and  now  sent  him  £12  for  a 
native  agent,  and  was  willing,  on  the  part  of  some  young 
friends,  to  send  presents  of  clothing  for  the  converts.  In 
acknowledging  this  letter,  Livingstone  poured  out  his 
very  heart,  so  full  was  he  of  gratitude  and  delight.  He 
entreated  the  givers  to  consider  Mebalwe  as  their  own 
agent,  and  to  concentrate  their  prayers  upon  him,  for 
prayer,  he  thought,  was  always  more  eflScacious  when  it 
could  be  said,  "One  thing  have  I  desired  of  the  Lord." 
As  to  the  present  of  clothing,  he  simply  entreated  his 
friends  to  send  nothing  of  the  kind ;  such  things  demoral- 
ized the  recipients,  and  bred  endless  jealousies.  If  he 
were  allowed  to  charge  something  for  the  clothes,  he 
would  be  pleased  to  have  them,  but  on  no  other  terms. 

Writing  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Society,  Rev.  A.  Tidman 
(24th  June,  1843),  and  referring  to  the  past  success  of  the 
Mission  in  the  nearer  localities,  he  says:  "If  you  could 
realize  this  fact  as  fully  as  those  on  the  spot  can,  you 
would  be  able  to  enter  into  the  feelings  of  irrepressible 
delight  with  which  I  hail  the  decision  of  the  Directors  that 
We  go  forward  to  the  dark  interior.  May  the  Lord  enable 
me  to  consecrate  my  whole  being  to  the  glorious  work  I" 

In  this  communication  to  the  Directors  Livingstone 
modestly,  but  frankly  and  firmly,  gives  them  his  mind  on 
some  points  touched  on  in  their  letter  to  him.  In  regard 
to  his  favorite  measure — native  agency — he  is  glad  that  a 
friend  has  remitted  money  for  the  employment  of  one 
agent,  and  that  others  have  promised  the  means  of 
employing  other  two.  On  another  subject  he  had  a  com- 
munication to  make  to  them  which  evidently  cost  him  no 
ordinary  effort.  In  his  more  private  letters  to  his  friends, 
from  an  early  period  after  entering  Africa,  he  had  expressed 
himself  very  freely,  almost  contemjptuously,  on  the  distri* 


FIEST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA.  7S 

buticn  of  the  laborers.  There  was  far  too  much  cluster- 
ing about  the  Cape  Colony,  and  the  district  immediately 
beyond  it,  and  a  woeful  slowness  to  strike  out  with  tho 
fearless  chivalry  that  became  missionaries  of  the  Cro^, 
and  take  possession  of  the  vast  continent  beyond.  All  hia 
letters  reveal  the  chafing  of  his  spirit  with  this  confine- 
ment of  evangelistic  energy  in  the  face  of  so  vast  a  field — ■ 
this  huddling  together  of  laborers  in  sparsely  peopled  dis- 
tricts, instead  of  sending  them  forth  over  the  whole  of 
Africa,  India,  and  China,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.  He  felt  deeply  that  both  the  Church  at  home, 
and  many  of  the  missionaries  on  the  spot,  had  a  poor 
conception  of  missionary  duty,  out  of  which  came  little 
faith,  little  effort,  little  expectation,  with  a  miserable  ten- 
dency to  exaggerate  their  own  evils  and  grievances,  and 
fall  into  paltry  squabbles  which  would  not  have  been 
possible  if  they  Ixad  been  fired  with  the  ambition  to  win 
the  world  for  Christ. 

But  what  it  was  a  positive  relief  for  him  to  whisper  :in 
the  ear  of  an  intimate  friend,  it  demanded  the  courage  of 
a  hero  to  proclaim  to  the  Directors  of  a  great  Society.  It 
was  like  impugning  their  whole  policy  and  arraigning 
their  wisdom.  But  Livingstone  could  not  say  one  thing 
in  private  and  another  in  public.  Frankly  and  fearlessly 
he  proclaimed  his  views : 

"The  conviction  to  which  I  refer  is  that  a  mach  larger  share  of  the 
benevolence  of  the  Church  and  of  missionary  exertion  is  directed  into 
this  country  than  the  amount  of  population,  as  compared  with  other 
countries,  and  the  succeisg  attending  those  efforts,  seem  to  call  for.  Thie 
conviction  has  been  forced  upon  me,  both  by  a  personal  inspectioa, 
more  extensive  than  that  which  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  other, 
either  missionary  or  trader,  and  by  the  sentiments  of  other  missionariea 
who  have  investigated  the  subject  according  to  their  opportunities.  In 
reference  to  the  population,  I  may  mention  that  I  was  led  in  England 
to  believe  that  the  population  of  the  interior  was  dense,  and  now  since  I 
have  come  to  this  country  I  have  conversed  with  many,  both  of  our 
Society  and  of  the  French,  and  none  of  them  would  reckon  np  the 
number  of  30,000  Bechuanaa." 


74  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

He  then  proceeds  to  details  in  a  most  characteristic  way, 
giving  the  number  of  huts  in  every  village,  and  being 
careful  in  every  case,  as  his  argument  proceeded  on  there 
being  a  small  population,  rather  to  overstate  than  under- 
state the  number ; 

"  In  view  of  these  facts  and  the  confirmation  of  them  I  hare  received 
from  both  French  and  English  brethren,  computing  the  population 
much  below  what  I  have  stated,  I  confess  I  feel  grieved  to  hear  of  the 
arrival  of  new  missionaries.  Nor  am  I  the  only  one  who  deplores  their 
appointment  to  this  country.  Again  and  again  have  I  been  pained  at 
heart  to  hear  the  question  put,  Where  will  these  new  brethren  find 
fields  of  labor  in  this  country?  Because  I  know  that  in  India  or  China 
there  are  fields  large  enough  for  all  their  energies.  I  am  very  far  from 
undervaluing  the  success  which  has  attended  the  labors  of  missionaries 
in  this  land.  No !  I  gratefully  acknowledge  the  wonders  God  hath 
wrought,  and  I  feel  that  the  salvation  of  one  soul  is  of  more  value  than 
all  the  effort  that  has  been  expended;  but  we  are  to  seek  the  field  where 
there  is  a  possibility  that  most  souls  will  be  converted,  and  it  is  this 
consideration  which  makes  me  earnestly  call  the  attention  of  the  Direc- 
tors to  the  subject  of  statistics.  If  these  were  actually  returned — and 
there  would  be  very  little  difficulty  in  doing  so — it  might,  perhaps,  be 
found  that  there  is  not  a  country  better  supplied  with  missionaries  in 
the  world,  and  that  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  agents  compared  to 
the  amount  of  population,  the  success  may  be  inferior  to  most  other 
countries  where  efforts  have  been  made." 

Finding  that  a  brother  missionary  was  willing  to  accom- 
pany him  to  the  station  he  had  fixed  on  among  the  Ba- 
khatlas,  and  enable  him  to  set  to  work  with  the  necessary 
arrangements,  Livingstone  set  out  with  him  in  the  begin- 
ning of  August,  1843,  and  arrived  at  his  destination  after 
a  fortnight's  journey.  Writing  to  his  family,  "  in  sight  of 
the  hills  of  Bakhatla,"  August  21st,  1843,  he  says:  "We 
are  in  company  with  a  party  of  tbree  hunters:  one  of 
them  from  the  West  Indies,  and  two  from  India — Mr. 
Pringle  from  Tinnevelly,  and  Captain  Steel  of  the  Cold- 
stream Guards,  aide-de-camp  to  the  Governor  of  Madraa 
.  .  .  The  Captain  is  the  politest  of  the  whole,  well 
versed  in  the  classics,  and  possessed  of  much  general 


FIRST  TWO  TEARS  IN  AFRICA.  75 

knowledge."  Captain  Steele,  now  General  Sir  Thomas 
Steele,  proved  one  of  Livingstone's  best  and  most  constant 
friends.  In  one  respect  the  society  of  gentlemen  who  came 
to  hunt  would  not  have  been  sought  by  Livingstone,  their 
aims  and  pursuits  being  so  different  from  his;  but  he 
got  on  with  them  wonderfully.  In  some  instances  these 
strangers  were  thoroughly  sympathetic,  but  not  in  alL 
When  they  were  not  sympathetic  on  religion,  he  had  a 
strong  conviction  that  his  first  duty  as  a  servant  of  Christ 
was  to  commend  his  religion  by  his  life  and  spirit — by 
integrity,  civility,  kindness,  and  constant  readiness  to 
deny  himself  in  obliging  others;  having  thus  secured 
their  esteem  and  confidence,  he  would  take  such  quiet 
opportunities  as  presented  themselves  to  get  near  their 
consciences  on  his  Master's  behalf.  He  took  care  that 
there  should  be  no  moving  about  on  the  day  of  rest,  and 
that  the  outward  demeanor  of  all  should  be  befitting  a 
Christian  company.  For  himself,  while  he  abhorred  the 
indiscriminate  slaughter  of  animals  for  mere  slaughter's 
sake,  he  thought  well  of  the  chase  as  a  means  of  develop- 
ing courage,  promptness  of  action  in  time  of  danger,  pro- 
tracted endurance  of  hunger  and  thirst,  determination  in 
the  pursuit  of  an  object,  and  other  qualities  befitting  brave 
and  powerful  men.  The  respect  and  affection  with  which 
he  inspired  the  gentlemen  who  were  thus  associated  with 
him  was  very  remarkable.  Doubtless,  with  his  quick 
apprehension,  he  learned  a  good  deal  from  their  society 
of  the  ways  and  feelings  of  a  class  with  whom  hitherto  he 
had  hardly  ever  been  in  contact.  The  large  resources 
with  which  they  were  furnished,  in  contrast  to  his  own, 
excited  no  feeling  of  envy,  nor  even  a  desire  to  possess 
their  ample  means,  unless  he  could  have  used  them  to 
extend  missionary  operations;  and  the  gentlemen  them- 
selves would  sometimes  remark  that  the  missionaries 
were  more  comfortable  than  they.  Though  they  might 
at  times  spend  thousands  of  pounds  where  Livingstone 


76  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

did  not  spend  as  many  pence,  and  would  be  provided  with 
horses,  servants,  tents,  and  stores,  enough  to  secure  com- 
fort under  almost  any  conditions,  they  had  not  that  key  to 
the  native  heart  and  that  power  to  command  the  willing 
services  of  native  attendants  which  belonged  so  remarkably 
to  the  missionary.  "  When  we  arrive  at  a  spot  where  we 
intend  to  spend  the  night,"  writes  Livingstone  to  his 
family,  "  all  hands  immediately  unyoke  the  oxen.  Then 
one  or  two  of  the  company  collect  wood ;  one  of  us  strikes 
up  a  fire,  another  gets  out  the  water-bucket  and  fills  the 
kettle;  a  piece  of  meat  is  thrown  on  the  fire,  and  if  we 
have  biscuits,  we  are  at  our  cofiee  in  less  than  half  an 
hour  after  arriving.  Our  friends,  perhaps,  sit  or  stand 
shivering  at  their  fire  for  two  or  three  hours  before  they 
get  their  things  ready,  and  are  glad  occasionally  of  a  cup 
of  006*66  from  us." 

The  first  act  of  the  missionaries  on  arriving  at  their 
destination  was  to  have  an  interview  with  the  chief,  and 
ask  whether  he  desired  a  missionary.  Having  an  eye  to 
the  beads,  guns,  and  other  things,  of  which  white  men 
seemed  always  to  have  an  ample  store,  the  chief  and  his 
men  gave  them  a  cordial  welcome,  and  Livingstone  next 
proceeded  to  make  a  purchase  of  land.  This,  like  Abra- 
ham with  the  sons  of  Heth,  he  insisted  should  be  done  in 
legal  form,  and  for  this  purpose  he  drew  up  a  written  con- 
tract to  which,  after  it  was  fully  explained  to  them,  both 
parties  attached  their  signatures  or  marks.  They  then 
proceeded  to  the  erection  of  a  hut  fifty  feet  by  eighteen, 
not  getting  much  help  from  the  Bakhatlas,  who  devolved 
such  labors  on  the  women,  but  being  greatly  helped  by 
the  native  deacon,  Mebalwe.  All  this  Livingstone  and  his 
companion  had  done  on  their  own  responsibility,  and  in 
the  hope  that  the  Directors  would  approve  of  it.  But  if 
they  did  not,  he  told  them  that  he  was  at  their  disposal 
**  to  go  anywhere — provided  it  be  forward." 

The  progress  of  medical  and  scientific  work  during  this 


FIRST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA,  Tl 

period  is  noted  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Risdon  Bennett,  dated 
SOth  June,  1843.  In  addition  to  full  details  of  the  mis- 
sionary work,  this  letter  enters  largely  into  the  state  of 
disease  in  South  Africa,  and  records  some  interesting  cases, 
medical  and  surgical.  Still  more  interesting,  perhaps,  is 
the  evidence  it  affords  of  the  place  in  Livingstone's  atten- 
tion which  began  to  be  occupied  by  three  great  subjects  of 
which  we  shall  hear  much  anon — Fever,  Tsetse,  and  "  the 
Lake."  Fever  he  considered  the  greatest  barrier  to  the 
evangelization  of  Africa.  Tsetse,  an  insect  like  a  common 
fly,  destroyed  horses  and  oxen,  so  that  many  traders  lost 
literally  every  ox  in  their  team.  As  for  the  Lake,  it  lay 
somewhat  beyond  the  outskirts  of  his  new  district,  and 
was  reported  terrible  for  fever.  He  heard  that  Mr.  Moffat 
intended  to  visit  it,  but  he  was  somewhat  alarmed  lest  his 
friend  should  suffer.  It  was  not  Moffat,  but  Livingstone, 
however,  that  first  braved  the  risks  of  that  fever  swamp. 

A  subject  of  special  scientific  interest  to  the  missionary 
during  this  period  was — the  desiccation  of  Africa.  On 
this  topic  he  addressed  a  long  letter  to  Dr.  Buckland  in 
1843,  of  which,  considerably  to  his  regret,  no  public  notice 
appears  to  have  been  taken,  and  perhaps  the  letter  never 
reached  him.  The  substance  of  this  paper  may,  however, 
be  gathered  from  a  communication  subsequently  made  to 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society^  after  his  first  impression 
had  been  confirmed  by  enlarged  observation  and  discovery. 
Around,  and  north  of  Kuruman,  he  had  found  many  indi- 
cations of  a  much  larger  supply  of  water  in  a  former  age. 
He  ascribed  the  desiccation  to  the  gradual  elevation  of  the 
western  part  of  the  country.  He  found  traces  of  a  very 
large  ancient  river  which  flowed  nearly  north  and  south 
to  a  large  lake,  including  the  bed  of  the  present  Orange 
River;  in  fact,  he  believed  that  the  whole  country  south  of 
Lake  'Ngami  presented  in  ancient  times  very  much  the 
same  appearance  as  the  basin  north  of  that  lake  does  now, 

*  See  Journal,  vol.  xxvii.  p.  366. 


78  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

and  that  the  southern  lake  disappeared  when  a  fissure  was 
made  in  the  ridge  through  which  the  Orange  River  now 
proceeds  to  the  sea.  He  could  even  indicate  the  spot 
where  the  river  and  the  lake  met,  for  some  hills  there  had 
caused  an  eddy  in  which  was  found  a  mound  of  calcareous 
tufa  and  travertine,  full  of  fossil  bones.  These  fossils  he 
was  most  eager  to  examine,  in  order  to  determine  the  time 
of  the  change ;  but  on  his  first  visit  he  had  no  time,  and 
when  he  returned,  he  was  suddenly  called  away  to  visit  a 
missionary's  child,  a  hundred  miles  ofif.  It  happened  that 
he  was  never  in  the  same  locality  again,  and  had  therefore 
no  opportunity  to  complete  his  investigation. 

Dr.  Livingstone's  mind  had  that  wonderful  power  which 
belongs  to  some  men  of  the  highest  gifts,  of  passing  with 
the  utmost  rapidity,  not  only  from  subject  to  subject,  but 
from  one  mood  or  key  to  another  entirely  different.  In  a 
letter  to  his  family,  written  about  this  time,  we  have  a 
characteristic  instance.  On  one  side  of  the  sheet  is  a  pro- 
longed outburst  of  tender  Christian  love  and  lamentation 
over  a  young  attendant  who  had  died  of  fever  suddenly; 
on  the  other  side,  he  gives  a  map  of  the  Bakhatla  country 
with  its  rivers  and  mountains,  and  is  quite  at  home  in  the 
geographical  details,  crowning  his  description  with  some 
sentimental  and  half-ludicrous  lines  of  poetry.  No  reason- 
able man  will  fancy  that  in  the  wailings  of  his  heart  there 
was  any  levity  or  want  of  sincerity.  What  we  are  about 
to  copy  merits  careful  consideration :  first,  as  evincing  the 
depth  and  tenderness  of  his  love  for  these  black  savages; 
next,  as  showing  that  it  was  pre-eminently  Christian  love, 
intensified  by  his  vivid  view  of  the  eternal  world,  and 
belief  in  Christ  as  the  only  Saviour ;  and,  lastly,  as  reveal- 
ing the  secret  of  the  affection  which  these  poor  fellows 
bore  to  him  in  return.  The  intensity  of  the  scrutiny 
which  he  directs  on  his  heart,  and  the  severity  of  the 
judgment  which  he  seems  to  pass  on  himself,  as  if  he  had 
not  done  all  he  might  have  done  for  the  spiritual  good  of 


FIRST  TWO  YEARS  IN  AFRICA,  n 

Uiis  young  man,  show  with  what  intense  conscientiousness 
he  tried  to  discharge  his  missionary  duty : 

"Poor  Sehamy,  where  art  thou  now?  Where  lodges  thy  soul 
to-night?  Didst  thou  think  of  what  I  told  thee  as  thou  turnedst  from 
side  to  side  in  distress?  I  could  now  do  anything  for  thee.  I  could 
weep  for  thy  soul.  But  now  nothing  can  be  done.  Thy  fate  is  fixed. 
Oh,  am  I  guilty  of  the  blood  of  thy  soul,  my  poor  dear  Sehamy  ?  If 
so,  how  shall  I  look  upon  thee  in  the  judgment  ?  But  I  told  thee  of  a 
Saviour ;  didst  thou  think  of  Him,  and  did  He  lead  thee  through  the 
dark  valley?  Did  He  comfort  as  He  only  can?  Help  me,  0  Lord 
Jesus,  to  be  faithful  to  every  one.  Remember  me,  and  let  me  not  be 
guilty  of  the  blood  of  souls.  This  poor  young  man  was  the  leader  of 
the  party.  He  governed  the  others,  and  most  attentive  lie  was  to  me. 
He  anticipated  my  every  want.  He  kept  the  water-calabash  at  his 
head  at  night,  and  if  I  awoke,  he  was  ready  to  give  me  a  draught 
immediately.  When  the  meat  was  boiled  he  secured  the  best  portion 
for  me,  the  best  place  for  sleeping,  the  best  of  everything.  Oh,  where 
is  he  now?  He  became  ill  after  leaving  a  certam  tribe,  and  believed  he 
had  been  poisoned.  Another  of  the  party  and  he  ate  of  a  certain  dish 
given  them  by  a  woman  whom  they  had  displeased,  and  having  met  this 
man  yesterday  he  said,  '  Sehamy  is  gone  to  heaven,  and  I  am  almost 
dead  by  the  poison  given  us  by  that  woman.'  I  don't  believe  they  took 
any  poison,  but  they  do,  and  their  imaginations  are  dreadfuliy  excited 
when  they  entertain  that  belief." 

The  same  letter  intimates  that  in  case  his  family  should 
have  arranged  to  emigrate  to  America,  as  he  had  formerly 
advised  them  to  do,  he  had  sent  home  a  bill  of  which  £10 
was  to  aid  the  emigration,  and  £10  to  be  spent  on  clothes 
for  himself.  In  regard  to  the  latter  sum,  he  now  wished 
them  to  add  it  to  the  other,  so  that  his  help  might  be  more 
substantial ;  and  for  himself  he  would  make  his  old  clothes 
serve  for  another  year.  The  emigration  scheme,  which  he 
thought  would  have  added  to  the  comfort  of  his  parents 
and  sisters,  was  not,  however,  carried  into  effect.  The 
advice  to  his  family  to  emigrate  proceeded  from  deep  con- 
victions. In  a  subsequent  letter  (4th  December,  1850)  he 
writes:  "If  I  could  only  be  with  you  for  a  week,  you  would 
soon  be  pushing  on  in  the  world.    The  world  is  ours.    Our 


80  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Father  made  it  to  be  inhabited,  and  many  shall  run  to 
and  fro,  and  knowledge  shall  be  increased.  It  will  he 
increased  more  by  emigration  than  by  missionaries."  He 
held  it  to  be  God's  wish  that  the  unoccupied  parts  of  the 
earth  should  be  possessed,  and  he  believed  in  Christian 
colonizption  as  a  great  means  of  spreading  the  gospel. 
We  shall  see  afterward  that  to  plant  English  and  Scotch 
colonies  in  Africa  became  one  of  his  master  ideas  and 
(avorite  schemes. 


FIBST  TWO  jSTAlIOm.  81 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FIRST   TWO   STATIONS — MABOTSA   AND    CHONUANE. 
A.D.  1843-1847. 

.^fismption  of  Mabotsa — A  favorite  hymn — Genera*  reading — Mabotsa  infested 
with  lions — Livingstone's  encounter — The  native  deacon  who  saved  him— 
His  Sunday-school — Marriage  to  Mary  Mofifat — Work  at  Mabotsa — Proposed 
institution  for  training  native  agents — Letter  to  his  mother — Trouble  at 
Mabotsa — Noble  sacrifice  of  Livingstone — Goes  to  Sechele  and  the  Bakwains 
—New  station  at  Chonuane — Interest  shown  by  Sechele — Journeys  eastward 
. — The  Boers  and  the  Transvaal — Their  occupation  of  the  country,  and  treat- 
ment of  the  natives — "Work  among  the  Bakwains — Livingstone's  desire  to 
move  on — Theological  conflict  at  home — His  view  of  it — His  scientific  labors 
and  miscellaneous  employments. 

Describing  what  was  to  be  his  new  home  to  his  frieno 
Watt  from  Kuruman,  27th  September,  1843,  Livingstone 
says:  "  The  Bakhatla  have  cheerfully  offered  to  remove  to 
a  more  favorable  position  than  they  at  present  occupy. 
We  have  fixed  upon  a  most  delightful  valley,  which  we 
hope  to  make  the  centre  of  our  sphere  of  operations  in  the 
interior.  It  is  situated  in  what  poetical  gents  like  you 
would  call  almost  an  amphitheatre  of  mountains.  The 
mountain  range  immediately  in  the  rear  of  the  spot  where 
we  have  fixed  our  residence  is  called  Mabotsa,  or  a  mar- 
riage-feast. May  the  Lord  lift  upon  us  the  light  of  his 
countenance,  so  that  by  our  feeble  instrumentality  many 
may  thence  be  admitted  to  the  marriage-feast  of  the  Lamb. 
The  people  are  as  raw  as  may  well  be  imagined;  they 
have  not  the  least  desire  but  for  the  things  of  the  earth, 
and  it  must  be  a  long  time  ere  we  can  gain  their  attention 
to  the  things  which  are  above." 

Something  led  him  in  his  lettei  tc  Mr.  Watt  to  talk 


82  DAVID  LiyiNGSTONK 

of  the  old  monks,  and  the  spots  they  selected  for  their 
establishments.  He  goes  on  to  write  lovingly  of  what  was 
good  in  some  of  the  old  fathers  of  the  mediaeval  Church, 
despite  the  strong  feeling  of  many  to  the  contrary ;  indi- 
cating thus  early  the  working  of  that  catholic  spirit  which 
was  constantly  expanding  in  later  years,  which  could 
separate  the  good  in  any  man  from  all  its  evil  surround- 
ings, and  think  of  it  thankfully  and  admiringly.  In  the 
following  extract  we  get  a  glimpse  of  a  range  of  reading 
much  wider  than  most  would  probably  have  supposed 
likely : 

"Who  can  read  the  sermons  of  St.  Bernard,  the  meditations  of  St. 
Augustine,  etc.,  without  saying,  whatever  other  faults  they  had :  They 
thirsted,  and  now  they  are  filled.  That  hymn  of  St.  Bernard,  on  the 
fiame  of  Christ,  although  in  what  might  be  termed  dog-Latin,  pleases 
me  so ;  it  rings  in  my  ears  as  I  wander  across  the  wide,  wide  wilderness, 
and  makes  me  wish  I  was  more  like  them — 

"  Jesu,  dulcis  memoria,  Jesu,  spes  poenitentibus, 

Dans  cordi  vera  gaudia ;  Quam  pius  es  petentibus  I 

Sed  super  mel  et  omnia,  Quam  bonus  es  quserentibofll 

Ejus  dulcis  praesentia.  Sed  quid  invenientibus  I 

Nil  canitur  suavius,  Jesu,  dulcedo  cordium, 

Nil  auditur  jucundius,  Fons,  rivus,  lumen  mentium, 

Nil  cogitatur  dulcius,  Excedens  omne  gaudium, 

Quam  Jesus  Dei  filius.  Et  omne  desiderium." 

Livingstone  was  in  the  habit  of  fastening  inside  the 
boards  of  his  journals,  or  writing  on  the  fly-leaf,  verses 
that  interested  him  specially.  In  one  of  these  volumes 
this  hymn  is  copied  at  full  length.  In  another  we  find  a 
very  yellow  newspaper  clipping  of  the  "  Song  of  the  Shirt." 
In  the  same  volume  a  clipping  containing  "  The  Bridge  of 
Sighs,"  beginning 

"  One  more  unfortunate, 
Weary  of  breath, 
Kashly  importunate, 
Oone  to  her  death." 


FIRST  TWO  STATIOm  tl 

In  another  we  have  Coleridge's  lines : 

"  He  prayeth  well  who  loveth  well 
Both  man  and  bird  and  beast. 
He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small ; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 

In  another,  hardly  legible  on  the  marble  paper,  we  find: 

"  So  runs  my  dream  :  but  what  am  I  ? 

An  infant  crying  in  the  night ; 

An  infant  crying  for  the  light : 

And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 

All  Livingstone's  personal  friends  testiiy  tnat,  con- 
sidering the  state  of  banishment  in  which  he  lived,  his 
acquaintance  with  English  literature  was  quite  remark- 
able. When  a  controversy  arose  in  America  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  his  letters  to  the  New  York  Herald,  the 
familiarity  of  the  writer  with  the  poems  of  Whittier  wa? 
made  an  argument  against  him.  But  Livingstone  knew 
a  great  part  of  the  poetry  of  Longfellow,  Whittier,  and 
others  by  heart 

There  was  one  drawback  to  the  new  locality:  it  was 
infested  with  lions.  All  the  world  knows  the  story  of  the 
encounter  at  Mabotsa,  which  was  so  near  ending  Living- 
stone's career,  when  the  lion  seized  him  by  the  shoulder, 
tore  his  flesh,  and  crushed  his  bone.  Nothing  in  all  Liv- 
ingstone's history  took  more  hold  of  the  popular  imagina- 
tion, or  was  more  frequently  inquired  about  when  he  came 
home.^  By  a  kind  of  miracle  his  life  was  saved,  but  the 
encounter  left  him  lame  for  life  of  the  arm  which  the  lion 

*  He  did  not  speak  of  it  spontaneously,  and  sometimes  he  gave  unexpected 
answers  to  questions  put  to  him  about  it.  To  one  person  who  asked  very 
earnestly  what  were  his  thoughts  when  the  lion  was  above  him,  he  answered, 
•*I  was  thinking  what  part  of  me  he  would  eat  first" — a  grotesque  thought, 
which  some  persons  considered  strange  in  so  good  a  man,  but  which  was  qtHt# 
in  accordance  with  human  experience  in  similar  circumstances. 


d4  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

crunched.*  But  the  world  generally  does  not  know  that 
Mebalwe,  the  native  who  was  with  him,  and  who  saved  his 
life  by  diverting  the  lion  when  his  paw  was  on  his  head, 
was  the  teacher  whom  Mrs.  M'Robert's  twelve  pounds  had 
enabled  him  to  employ.  Little  did  the  good  woman  think 
that  this  offering  would  indirectly  be  the  means  of  pre- 
serving the  life  of  Livingstone  for  the  wonderful  work 
of  the  next  thirty  years !  When,  on  being  attacked  by 
Mebalwe,  the  lion  left  Livingstone,  and  sprang  upon  him, 
he  bit  his  thigh,  then  dashed  toward  another  man,  and 
caught  him  by  the  shoulder,  when  in  a  moment,  the  pre- 
vious shots  taking  efiPect,  he  fell  down  dead.  Sir  Bartle 
Frere,  in  his  obituary  notice  of  Livingstone  read  to  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  remarked :  "  For  thirty  years 
afterward  all  his  labors  and  adventures,  entailing  such 
exertion  and  fatigue,  were  undertaken  with  a  limb  so 
maimed  that  it  was  painful  for  him  to  raise  a  fowling- 
piece,  or  in  fact  to  place  the  left  arm  in  any  position  above 
the  level  of  the  shoulder." 

In  his  Missionary  Travels  Livingstone  sayB  that  but  for 
the  importunities  of  his  friends,  he  meant  to  have  kept 
this  story  in  store  to  tell  his  children  in  his  dotage.  How 
little  he  made  of  it  at  the  time  will  be  seen  from  the  fol- 
lowing allusion  to  it  in  a  letter  to  his  father,  dated  27th 
July,  1844.  After  telling  how  the  attacks  of  the  lions 
drew  the  people  of  Mabotsa  away  from  the  irrigating 
operations  he  was  engaged  in,  he  says : 

*' At  last,  one  of  the  lions  destroyed  nine  sheep  in  broad  daylight  on  a 
hill  jupt  opposite  our  house.  All  the  people  inn  mediately  ran  over  to  it, 
and,  contrary  to  my  custom,  I  imprudently  went  with  them,  in  order  to 
Bee  how  they  acted,  and  encourage  them  to  destroy  him.  They  sur- 
rounded him  several  times,  but  he  managed  to  break  through  the  circle. 
I  then  got  tired.  In  coming  home  I  had  to  come  near  to  the  end  of  the 
hill.     They  were  then  close  upon  the  lion  and  had  wounded  him.     He 

*The  false  joint  in  the  crushed  arm  was  the  mark  by  which  the  body  ol 
Livingstone  was  identified  when  brought  home  by  his  followers  in  1874. 


FIRST  TWO  STATIONS.  85 

msnea  ont  from  the  bushes  which  concealed  him  from  view,  and  bit  me 
on  the  arm  bo  as  to  break  the  bone.  It  is  now  nearly  well,  however, 
feeling  weak  only  from  having  been  confined  in  one  position  so  long ; 
and  I  ought  to  praise  Him  who  delivered  me  from  so  great  a  danger. 
I  hope  I  shall  never  forget  his  mercy.  You  need  not  be  sorry  for  me, 
for  long  before  this  reaches  you  it  will  be  quite  as  strong  as  ever  it  waa. 
Gratitude  is  the  only  feeling  we  ought  to  have  in  remembering  the  event. 
Do  not  mention  this  to  any  one.     I  do  not  like  to  be  talked  about." 

In  a  letter  to  the  Directors,  Livingstone  briefly  adverts 
to  Mebalwe's  service  on  this  occasion,  but  makes  it  a  peg 
on  which  to  hang  some  strong  remarks  on  that  favorite 
topic — the  employment  of  native  agency : 

"  Our  native  assistant  Mebalwe  has  been  of  considerable  value  to  the 
Mission.  In  endeavoring  to  save  my  life  he  nearly  lost  his  own,  for  he 
was  caught  and  wounded  severely,  but  both  before  being  laid  aside,  and 
since  his  recovery,  he  has  shown  great  willingness  to  be  useful.  The 
cheerful  manner  in  which  he  engages  with  us  in  manual  labor  in  the 
station,  and  his  affectionate  addresses  to  his  countrymen,  are  truly  grati. 
fying.  Mr.  E.  took  him  to  some  of  the  neighboring  villages  lately,  in 
order  to  introduce  him  to  his  work ;  and  I  intend  to  depart  to-morrow 
for  the  same  purpose  to  several  of  the  villages  situated  northeast  of 
this.  In  all  there  may  be  a  dozen  considerable  villages  situated  at  con- 
venient distances  around  us,  and  we  each  purpose  to  visit  them  statedly. 
It  would  be  an  immense  advantage  to  the  cause  had  we  many  such  agents.'* 

Another  proof  that  his  pleas  for  native  agency,  published 
in  some  of  the  Missionary  Magazines,  were  telling  at  home, 
was  the  receipt  of  a  contribution  for  the  employment  of  a 
native  helper,  amounting  to  £15,  from  a  Sunday-school  in 
Southampton.  Touched  with  this  proof  of  youthful  sym- 
pathy,  Livingstone  addressed  a  long  letter  of  thanks  to  tha 
Southampton  teachers  and  children,  desiring  to  deepen 
their  interest  in  the  work,  and  concluding  with  an  account 
of  his  Sunday-school : 

"I  yesterday  commenced  school  for  the  first  time  at  Mabotsa,  and 
the  poor  little  naked  things  came  with  fear  and  trembling.  A  native 
teacher  assisted,  and  the  chief  collected  as  many  of  them  as  he  could, 
or  I  believe  we  should  have  had  none.  The  reason  is,  the  women  makt 
08  the  hobgoblins  of  their  children,  telling  them  ^  these  white  meo  bite 
8 


BS  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

ehildren,  feed  them  with  dead  men's  braiDS,  and  all  manner  of  noiK 
eense.     We  are  just  commencing  our  mission  among  them." 

A  new  star  now  appeared  in  Livingstone's  horizon, 
destined  to  give  a  brighter  complexion  to  his  life,  and  a 
new  illustration  to  the  name  Mabotsa.  Till  this  year 
(1844)  he  had  steadily  repudiated  all  thoughts  of  marriage, 
thinking  it  better  to  be  independent.  Nor  indeed  had  he 
met  with  any  one  to  induce  him  to  change  his  mind. 
Writing  in  the  end  of  1843  to  his  friend  Watt,  he  had  said: 
"  There's  no  outlet  for  me  when  I  begin  to  think  of  getting 
married  but  that  of  sending  home  an  advertisement  to  the 
Evangelical  Magazine,  and  if  I  get  very  old,  it  must  be  for 
some  decent  sort  of  widow.  In  the  meantime  1  am  too 
busy  to  think  of  any  thing  of  the  kind.''  But  soon  after 
the  MofFats  came  back  from  England  to  Kuruman,  their 
eldest  daughter  Mary  rapidly  effected  a  revolution  in 
Livingstone's  ideas  of  matrimony.  They  became  engaged. 
In  announcing  his  approaching  marriage  to  the  Directors, 
he  makes  it  plain  that  he  had  carefully  considered  the 
bearing  which  this  step  might  have  on  his  usefulness  as  a 
missionary.  No  doubt  if  he  had  foreseen  the  very  extraor- 
dinary work  to  which  he  was  afterwards  to  be  called,  he 
might  have  come  to  a  different  conclusion.  But  now, 
apparently,  he  was  fixed  and  settled.  Mabotsa  would  be- 
come a  centre  from  which  native  missionary  agents  would 
radiate  over  a  large  circumference.  His  own  life-work 
would  resemble  Mr.  Moffat's.  For  influencing  the  women 
and  children  of  such  a  place,  a  Christian  lady  was  indis- 
pensable, and  who  so  likely  to  do  it  well  as  one  born  in 
Africa,  the  daughter  of  an  eminent  and  honored  mission- 
ary, herself  familiar  with  missionary  life,  and  gifted  with 
the  winning  manner  and  the  ready  helping  hand  that  were 
so  peculiarly  adapted  for  this  work  ?  The  case  was  as  clear 
as  possible,  and  Livingstone  was  very  happy. 

On  his  way  home  from  Kuruman,  after  the  engagement, 
he  writes  to  her  cheerily  from  Motito,  on  1st  August,  1844^, 


FIRST  TWO  STATIONS.  «7 

chiefly  about  the  household  they  were  soon  to  get  up ;  ask- 
ing her  to  get  her  father  to  order  some  necessary  articles, 
and  to  write  to  Colesberg  about  the  marriage-license  (and 
if  he  did  not  get  it,  they  would  license  themselves !),  and 
concluding  thus : 

"And  now,  my  dearest,  farewell.  May  God  blees  you  I  Let  year 
affection  be  towards  Him  much  more  than  towards  me ;  and,  kept  by 
his  mighty  power  and  grace,  I  hope  I  shall  never  give  you  cause  to 
regret  that  you  have  given  me  a  part.  Whatever  friendship  we  feel 
towards  each  other,  let  us  always  look  to  Jesus  as  our  common  friend 
and  guide,  and  may  He  shield  you  with  his  everlasting  arms  from  every 
evil  I " 

Next  month  he  writes  from  Mabotsa  with  full  accounts 
of  the  progress  of  their  house,  of  which  he  was  both 
architect  and  builder : 

^^  Mabotsa,  \2th  Sepiemhery  1844.  —  I  must  tell  you  of  the  progress  I 
have  made  in  architecture.  The  walls  are  nearly  finished,  although  the 
dimensions  are  52  feet  by  20  outside,  or  almost  the  same  size  as  the  house 
in  which  you  now  reside.  I  began  with  stone,  but  when  it  was  breast- 
high,  I  was  obliged  to  desist  from  my  purpose  to  build  it  entirely  of  that 
material  by  an  accident,  which,  slight  as  it  was,  put  a  stop  to  my  ope- 
rations in  that  line.  A  stone  falling  was  stupidly,  or  rather  instinctive- 
ly, caught  by  me  in  its  fall  by  the  left  hand,  and  it  nearly  broke  my  arm 
over  again.  It  swelled  up  again,  and  I  fevered  so  much  I  was  glad  of 
a  fire,  although  the  weather  was  quite  warm.  I  expected  bursting  and 
discharge,  but  Baba  bound  it  up  nicely,  and  a  few  days'  rest  put  all  to 
rights.  I  then  commenced  my  architecture,  and  six  days  have  brought 
the  walls  up  a  little  more  than  six  feet. 

"  The  walls  will  be  finished  long  before  you  receive  this,  and  I  suppose 
the  roof  too,  but  I  have  still  the  wood  of  the  roof  to  seek.  It  is  not, 
however,  far  off;  and  as  Mr.  E.  and  I,  with  the  Kurumanites,  got  on 
the  roof  of  the  school  in  a  week,  I  hope  this  will  not  be  more  than  a 
fortnight  or  three  weeks.  Baba  has  been  most  useful  to  me  in  making 
door  and  window  frames ;  indeed,  if  he  had  not  turned  out  I  should  not 
iiavebeen  advanced  so  far  as  I  am.  Mr.  E.'s  finger  is  the  cause  in  part 
of  my  having  no  aid  from  him,  but  all  will  come  right  at  last.  It  b? 
pretty  hard  work,  and  almost  enough  to  drive  love  out  of  my  head,  ba$ 
it  is  not  situated  there ;  it  is  in  my  heart,  and  won't  come  out  uniess  j<m 
behaTe  so  as  to  quench  iti    •    •    • 


88  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

"  You  must  try  and  get  a  maid  of  some  sort  to  come  with  you, 
although  it  is  only  old  Moyimang ;  you  can't  go  without  some  one,  and 
a  Makhatla  can't  be  had  for  either  love  or  money.     .     .     . 

"  You  must  excuse  soiled  paper,  my  hands  won't  wash  clean  after 
dabbling  mud  all  day.  And  although  the  above  does  not  contain 
evidence  of  it,  you  are  as  dear  to  me  as  ever,  and  will  be  as  long  as  our 
lives  are  spared. — I  am  still  your  most  affectionate 

"  D.  Livingston." 

A  few  weeks  later  he  writes : 

"  As  I  am  favored  with  another  opportunity  to  Kuruman,  I  gladly 
embrace  it,  and  wish  I  could  embrace  you  at  the  same  time;  but  as  I 
cannot,  I  must  do  the  next  best  to  it,  and  while  I  give  you  the  good 
news  that  our  work  is  making  progress,  and  of  course  the  time  of  our 
separation  becoming  beautifully  less,  I  am  happy  in  the  hope  that,  by 
the  messenger  who  now  goes,  I  shall  receive  the  good  news  that  you  are 
well  and  happy,  and  remembering  me  with  some  of  that  affection  which 
we  bear  to  each  other.  .  .  .  All  goes  on  pretty  well  here ;  the  school  is 
sometimes  well,  sometimes  ill  attended.  I  begin  to  like  it,  and  I  once 
believed  I  could  never  have  any  pleasure  in  such  employment.  I  had  a 
great  objection  to  school-keeping,  but  I  find  in  that  as  in  almost  every- 
thing else  I  set  myself  to  as  a  matter  of  duty,  I  soon  became  enamored 
of  it.  A  boy  came  three  times  last  week,  and  on  the  third  time  could 
act  as  monitor  to  the  rest  through  a  great  portion  of  the  alphabet.  He 
is  a  real  Mokhatla,  but  I  have  lost  sight  of  him  again.  If  I  get  them 
on  a  little,  I  shall  translate  some  of  your  infant-school  hymns  into  Sichu- 
ana  rhyme,  and  you  may  yet,  if  you  have  time,  teach  them  the  tunes  to 
them.  I,  poor  mortal,  am  as  mute  as  a  fish  in  regard  to  singing,  and 
Mr.  Englis  says  I  have  not  a  bit  of  imagination.  Mebalwe  teaches  them 
the  alphabet  in  the  '  auld  lang  syne '  tune  sometimes,  and  I  heard  it 
sung  by  some  youths  in  the  gardens  yesterday — a  great  improvement 
over  their  old  see-saw  tunes  indeed.  Sometimes  we  have  twenty,  some- 
times two,  sometimes  none  at  all. 

"  Give  my  love  to  A.,  and  tell  her  to  be  sure  to  keep  my  lecture  warm. 
She  must  not  be  vexed  with  herself,  that  she  was  not  more  frank  to  me. 
If  she  is  now  pleased,  all  is  right.  I  have  sisters,  and  know  all  of  you 
have  your  failings,  but  I  won't  love  you  less  for  these.  And  to  mother, 
too,  give  ray  kindest  salutation.  I  suppose  I  shall  get  a  lecture  from 
her,  too,  about  the  largeness  of  the  house.  If  there  are  too  many  win* 
dows,  she  can  just  let  me  know.  I  could  build  them  all  up  in  two  days, 
and  let  the  light  come  down  the  chimney,  if  that  would  please.  I'll  do 
anything  for  peace,  except  fighting  for  it.  And  now  I  must  again,  my 
dear,  dear  Mary,  bid  you  good-bye.  Accept  my  expressions  as  literally 
true  when  I  say,  I  am  your  most  affectionate  and  still  confiding  lover, 

"  D.  LiYiNOSTOir.'' 


FIRST  TWO  STATIONS.  9§ 

In  due  time  the  marriage  was  solemnized,  and  Living- 
stone brought  his  wife  to  Mabotsa.  Here  they  went 
vigorously  to  work,  Mrs.  Livingstone  with  her  infant- 
school,  and  her  husband  with  all  the  varied  agencies, 
medical,  educational,  and  pastoral,  which  his  active  spirit 
could  bring  to  bear  upon  the  people.  They  were  a  very 
superstitious  race,  and,  among  other  things,  had  great  faith 
in  rain-making.  Livingstone  had  a  famous  encounter  with 
one  of  their  rain-makers,  the  effect  of  which  was  that  the 
pretender  was  wholly  nonplused;  but  instead  of  being 
convinced  of  the  absurdity  of  their  belief,  the  people  were 
rather  disposed  to  think  that  the  missionaries  did  not  want 
them  to  get  rain.  Some  of  them  were  workers  in  iron, 
who  carried  their  superstitious  notions  into  that  depart- 
ment of  life,  too,  believing  that  the  iron  could  be  smelted 
only  by  the  power  of  medicines,  and  that  those  who  had 
not  the  proper  medicine  need  not  attempt  the  work.  In 
the  hope  of  breaking  down  these  absurdities,  Livingstone 
planned  a  course  of  popular  lectures  on  the  works  of  God 
in  creation  and  providence,  to  be  carried  out  in  the  follow- 
ing way : 

**  I  intend  to  commence  with  the  goodness  of  God  in  giring  fxon  ore, 
by  giving,  if  I  can,  a  general  knowledge  of  the  simplicity  of  the  sub- 
stance, and  endeavoring  to  disabuse  their  minds  of  the  idea  which 
prevents  them,  in  general,  from  reaping  the  benefit  of  that  mineral  which 
abounds  in  their  country.  I  intend,  also,  to  pay  more  attention  to  th« 
children  of  the  few  believers  we  have  with  us  as  a  class,  for  whom,  aa 
baptized  ones,  we  are  bound  especially  to  care.  May  the  Lord  enable 
me  to  fulfill  my  resolutions  1  I  have  now  the  happy  prospect  before  me 
©f  real  missionary  work.     AH  that  has  preceded  has  been  preparatory." 

All  this  time  Livingstone  had  been  cherishing  his  plan 
of  a  training  seminary  for  native  agents.  He  had  written 
a  paper  and  brought  the  matter  before  the  missionaries, 
but  without  success.  Some  opposed  the  scheme  fairly,  &8 
being  premature,  while  some  insinuated  that  his  object  was 
to  stand  well  with  the  Directors,  and  get  himself  made 


90  DAVID  LIYING8T0NK 

Professor.  This  last  objection  induced  him  to  withdraw 
his  proposal.  He  saw  that  in  his  mode  of  prosecuting  the 
matter  he  had  not  been  very  knowing ;  it  would  have  been 
better  to  get  some  of  the  older  brethren  to  adopt  it.  He 
feared  that  his  zeal  had  injured  the  cause  he  desired  to 
benefit,  and  in  writing  to  his  friend  Watt,  he  said  that  for 
months  he  felt  bitter  grief,  and  could  never  think  of  the 
subject  without  a  pang.'^ 

A  second  time  he  brought  forward  his  proposal,  but 
again  without  success.  Was  he  then  to  be  beaten  ?  Far 
from  it.  He  would  change  his  tactics,  however.  He  would 
first  set  himself  to  show  w^hat  could  be  done  by  native 
efforts ;  he  would  travel  about,  wherever  he  found  a  road, 
and  after  inquiries,  settle  native  agents  far  and  wide.  The 
plan  had  only  to  be  tried,  under  God's  blessing,  to  succeed. 
Here  again  we  trace  the  Providence  that  shaped  his  career. 
Had  his  wishes  been  carried  into  effect,  he  might  have? 
spent  his  life  training  native  agents,  and  doing  uudoubted- 
ly  a  noble  work :  but  he  would  not  have  traversed  Africa ; 
he  would  not  have  given  its  death-blow  to  African  slavery ; 
he  would  not  have  closed  the  open  sore  of  the  world,  nor 
rolled  away  the  great  obstacle  to  the  evangelization  of  the 
Continent. 

Some  glimpses  of  his  Mabotsa  life  may  be  got  from  a 
letter  to  his  mother  (14th  May,  1845).  Usually  his  letters 
for  home  were  meant  for  the  whole  family  and  addressed 
accordingly ;  but  with  a  delicacy  of  feeling,  which  many 
will  appreciate,  he  wrote  separately  to  his  mother  after  a 
little  experience  of  married  life : 

"  I  often  think  of  you,  and  perhaps  more  frequently  since  I  got  married 
than  before.  Only  yesterday  I  said  to  my  wife,  when  I  thought  of  the 
nice  clean  bed  I  enjoy  now,  'You  put  me  in  mind  of  my  mother j  sho 

*  Dr.  Moffat  favored  the  scheme  of  a  training  seminary,  and  when  he  came 
home  afterward,  helped  to  raise  a  large  sum  of  money  for  the  purpose.  He 
was  strongly  of  opinion  that  the  institution  should  be  built  at  Sech^le's;  but, 
contrary  to  his  view,  and  that  of  Livingstone,  it  has  been  placed  at  Kuruman. 


FIBST  TWO  STATIONS.  «l 

was  always  particular  about  our  beds  and  linen.  I  had  had  rough  times 
of  it  before.'     .     .     . 

"  I  cannot  perceive  that  the  attentions  paid  to  my  father-in-law  at 
home  have  spoiled  him.  He  is,  of  course,  not  the  same  man  he 
formerly  must  have  been,  for  he  now  knows  the  standing  he  has  among 
the  friends  of  Christ  at  home.  But  the  plaudits  he  received  have  had  a 
bad  effect,  and  tho'  not  on  his  mind,  yet  on  that  of  his  fellow-laborers. 
You,  perhaps,  cannot  understand  this,  but  so  it  is.  If  one  man  is 
praised,  others  think  this  is  more  than  is  deserved,  and  that  they,  too 
('others,'  they  say,  while  they  mean  themselves),  ought  to  have  a  share. 
Perhaps  you  were  gratified  to  see  my  letters  quoted  in  the  Chronicle. 
In  some  minds  they  produced  bitter  envy,  and  if  it  were  in  my  power, 
I  should  prevent  the  publication  of  any  in  future.  But  all  is  in  the 
Lord's  hands  ;  on  Him  I  cast  my  care.  His  testimony  I  receive  as  it 
stands — He  careth  for  us.  Yes,  He  does  j  for  He  says  it,  who  is  every 
way  worthy  of  credit.  He  will  give  what  is  good  for  me.  He  will  see 
to  it  that  all  things  work  together  for  good.  Do  thou  for  me,  O  Lord 
God  Almighty  1     May  his  blessing  rest  on  you,  my  dear  mother.    .    .    . 

"  I  received  the  box  from  Mr.  D.  The  clothes  are  all  too  wide  by 
four  inches  at  lea^t.  Does  he  think  that  aldermen  grow  in  Africa  ? 
Mr.  N.,  too,  fell  into  the  same  fault,  but  he  will  be  pleased  to  know  his 
boots  will  be  worn  by  a  much  better  man — Mr.  Moffat.  I  am  not  an 
atom  thicker  than  when  you  saw  me.     .     .     . 

"  Respecting  the  mission  here,  we  can  say  nothing.  The  people  have 
iflGt  the  smallest  love  to  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  They  hate  and  fear  it,  as 
a  revolutionary  spirit  is  disliked  by  the  old  Tories.  It  appears  to  them 
as  that  which,  if  not  carefully  guarded  against,  will  seduce  them,  and 
destroy  their  much-loved  domestic  institutions.  No  pro-slavery  man  in 
the  Southern  States  dreads  more  the  abolition  principles  than  do  the 
Bakhatla  the  innovations  of  the  Word  of  God.  Nothing  but  power 
Divine  can  work  the  mighty  change." 

Unhappily  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone's  residence  at 
Mabotsa  was  embittered  by  a  painful  collision  with  the 
missionary  who  had  taken  part  in  rearing  the  station, 
Livingstone  was  accused  of  acting  unfairly  by  him,  of 
assuming  to  himself  more  than  his  due,  and  attempts  were 
made  to  discredit  him,  both  among  the  missionaries  and 
the  Directors.  It  was  a  very  painful  ordeal,  and  Living- 
stone felt  it  keenly.  He  held  the  accusation  to  be  unjust, 
as  most  people  will  hold  it  to  have  been  who  know  that 
one  of  the  charges  against  him  was  that  he  was  a  "  non- 


92  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

entity  "  I  A  tone  of  indignation  pervades  his  letters : — ^that 
after  having  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,  he 
should  be  accused  of  claiming  for  himself  the  credit  due 
to  one  who  had  done  so  little  in  comparison.  But  the 
noble  spirit  of  Livingstone  rose  to  the  occasion.  Rather 
than  have  any  scandal  before  the  heathen,  he  would  give 
up  his  house  and  garden  at  Mabotsa,  with  all  the  toil  and 
money  they  had  cost  him,  go  with  his  young  bride  to  some 
other  place,  and  begin  anew  the  toil  of  house  and  school 
building,  and  gathering  the  people  around  him.  His 
colleague  was  so  struck  with  his  generosity  that  he  said 
had  he  known  his  intention  he  never  would  have  spoken 
a  word  against  him.  Livingstone  had  spent  all  his  money, 
and  out  of  a  salary  of  a  hundred  pounds  it  was  not  easy  to 
build  a  house  every  other  year.  But  he  stuck  to  his 
resolution.  Parting  with  his  garden  evidently  cost  him  a 
pang,  especially  when  he  thought  of  the  tasteless  hands 
into  which  it  was  to  fall.  "  I  like  a  garden,"  he  wrote, 
"  but  paradise  will  make  amends  for  all  our  privations  and 
sorrows  here."  Self-denial  was  a  firmly  established  habit 
with  him ;  and  the  passion  of  "  moving  on  "  was  warm  in 
his  blood.  Mabotsa  did  not  thrive  after  Livingstone  left 
it,  but  the  brother  with  whom  he  had  the  difference  lived 
to  manifest  a  very  different  spirit. 

In  some  of  his  journeys,  Livingstone  had  come  into  close 
contact  with  the  tribe  of  the  Bakwains,  which,  on  the 
murder  of  their  chief,  some  time  before,  had  been  divided 
into  two,  one  part  under  Bubi,  already  referred  to,  and  the 
other  under  Sechele,  son  of  the  murdered  chief,  also  already 
introduced.  Both  of  these  chiefs  had  shown  much  regard 
for  Livingstone,  and  on  the  death  of  Bubi,  Sechele  and  his 
people  indicated  a  strong  wish  that  a  missionary  should 
reside  among  them.  On  leaving  Mabotsa,  Livingstone 
transferred  his  services  to  this  tribe.  The  name  of  the 
new  station  was  Chonuane;  it  was  situated  some  forty 
Utiles  from  Mabotsa,  and  iu  1846  it  became  the  centre  of 


FiRST  CTWO  STATIONS.  93 

liviiigstone's  operations  among  the  Bakwains  and  their 
chief  Sechele. 

Livingstone  had  been  disappointed  with  the  result  of  his 
work  among  the  Bakhatlas.  No  doubt  much  good  had 
been  done;  he  had  prevented  several  wars;  but  where  were 
the  conversions?^  On  leaving  he  found  that  he  had  made 
more  impressions  on  them  than  he  had  supposed.  They 
were  most  unwilling  to  lose  him,  offered  to  do  anything  in 
their  power  for  his  comfort,  and  even  when  his  oxen  were 
**inspanned"  and  he  was  on  the  point  of  moving,  they  of- 
fered to  build  a  new  house  without  expense  to  him  in  some 
other  place,  if  only  he  would  not  leave  them.  In  a  finan- 
cial point  of  view,  the  removal  to  Chonuane  was  a  serious 
undertaking.  He  had  to  apply  to  the  Directors  at  home 
for  a  building-grant — only  thirty  pounds,  but  there  were  not 
wanting  objectors  even  to  that  small  sum.  It  was  only  in 
self- vindication  that  he  was  constrained  to  tell  of  the  hard- 
ships which  his  family  had  borne : — 

"We  endured  for  a  long  while,  using  a  wretched  infusion  of  native 
corn  for  coflPee,  but  when  our  corn  was  done,  we  were  fairly  obliged  to 
go  to  Kuruman  for  supplies.  I  can  bear  what  other  Europeans  would 
consider  hunger  and  thirst  without  any  inconvenience,  but  when  we 
arrived,  to  hear  the  old  woman  who  had  seen  my  wife  depart  about  two 
years  before,  exclaiming  before  the  door,  *  Bless  me  1  how  lean  she  is  | 
Has  he  starved  her?  Is  there  no  food  in  the  country  to  which  she  has 
been?'  was  more  than  I  could  well  bear." 

*  When  some  of  Livingstone's  "new  Hght"  friends  heard  that  there  were  so 
few  conversions,  they  seem  to  have  thought  that  he  was  too  much  of  an  old 
Calvinist,  and  wrote  to  him  to  preach  that  the  remedy  was  as  extensive  as  the 
disease — Qirist  loved  you,  and  gave  himself  for  you.  "You  may  think  me 
heretical,"  replied  he,  "but  we  don't  need  to  make  the  extent  of  the  atonement 
the  main  topic  of  our  preaching.  We  preach  to  men  who  don't  know  but  they 
are  beasts,  who  have  no  idea  of  God  as  a  personal  agent,  or  of  sin  as  evil, 
otherwise  than  as  an  offense  against  each  other,  which  may  or  may  not  be  pun- 
ished by  the  party  offended.  .  .  .  Their  consciences  are  seared,  ^id 
moral  perceptions  blunted.  Their  memories  retain  scarcely  anything  we  teack 
them,  and  so  low  have  they  sunk  that  the  plamest  text  in  the  wfac^  HUc 
cannot  be  understood  by  them." 


94  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

From  the  first,  Sechele  showed  an  intelligent  interest  in 
Livingstone's  preaching.  He  became  a  great  reader  espe- 
cially of  the  Bible,  and  lamented  very  bitterly  that  he  had 
got  involved  in  heathen  customs,  and  now  did  not  know 
what  to  do  with  his  wives.  At  one  time  he  expressed  him- 
self quite  willing  to  convert  all  his  people  to  Christianity 
by  the  litupa,  i.  e.  whips  of  rhinoceros  hide ;  but  when  he 
came  to  understand  better,  he  lamented  that  while  he  could 
make  his  people  do  anything  else  he  liked,  he  could  not  get 
one  of  them  to  believe.  He  began  family  worship,  and 
Livingstone  was  surprised  to  hear  how  well  he  conducted 
prayer  in  his  own  simple  and  beautiful  style.  When  he 
was  baptized,  after  a  profession  of  three  years,  he  sent  away 
his  superfluous  wives  in  a  kindly  and  generous  way;  but 
all  their  connections  became  active  and  bitter  enemies  of 
the  gospel,  and  the  conversion  of  Sechele,  instead  of  in- 
creasing the  congregation,  reduced  it  so  much  that  some- 
times the  chief  and  his  family  were  almost  the  only  persons 
present.  A  bell-man  of  a  somewhat  peculiar  order  was 
once  employed  to  collect  the  people  for  service — a  tall 
gaunt  fellow.  "  Up  he  jumped  on  a  sort  of  platform,  and 
shouted  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  'Knock  that  woman  down 
over  there.  Strike  her,  she  is  putting  on  her  pot!  Do  you 
see  that  one  hiding  herself?  Give  her  a  good  blow.  There 
she  is — see,  see,  knock  her  down ! '  All  the  women  ran  to 
the  place  of  meeting  in  no  time,  for  each  thought  herself 
meant.  But,  though  a  most  efficient  bell-man,  we  did  not 
like  to  employ  him." 

While  residing  at  Chonuane,  Livingstone  performed  two 
Ijourneys  eastward,  in  order  to  attempt  the  removal  of  cer- 
tain obstacles  to  the  establishment  of  at  least  one  of  his 
native  teachers  in  that  direction.  This  brought  him  into 
connection  with  the  Dutch  Boers  of  the  Cashan  mountains, 
G;;herwise  called  Magaliesberg.  The  Boers  were  emigrants 
from  the  Cape,  who  had  been  dissatisfied  with  the  British  rule, 
and  especially  with  the  emancipation  of  their  Hottentot 


FIRST  TWO  STATIONS.  96 

slaves,  and  had  created  for  themselves  a  republic  in  the 
north  (the  Transvaal),  in  order  that  they  might  pursue, 
unmolested,  the  proper  treatment  of  the  blacks.  "It  is 
almost  needless  to  add,"  says  Livingstone,  "that  proper 
treatment  has  always  contained  in  it  the  essential  element 
of  slavery,  viz,,  compulsory  unpaid  labor."  The  Boers  had 
effected  the  expulsion  of  Mosilikatse,  a  savage  Zulu  warrior^ 
and  in  return  for  this  service  they  considered  themselves 
sole  masters  of  the  soil.  While  still  engaged  in  the  erection  of 
his  dwelling-house  at  Chonuane,  Livingstone  received  notes 
from  the  Commandant  and  Council  of  the  emigrants, 
requesting  an  explanation  of  his  intentions,  and  an  in- 
timation that  they  had  resolved  to  come  and  deprive 
Sechele  of  his  fire-arms.  About  the  same  time  he  received 
several  very  friendly  messages  and  presents  from  Mokhatla, 
chief  of  a  large  section  of  the  Bakhatla,  who  lived  about 
four  days  eastward  of  his  station,  and  had  once,  while 
Livingstone  was  absent,  paid  a  visit  to  Chonuane,  and  ex- 
pressed satisfaction  with  the  idea  of  obtaining  Paul,  a  native 
convert,  as  his  teacher.  As  soon  as  his  house  was  habitable, 
Livingstone  proceeded  to  the  eastward,  to  visit  Mokhatla, 
and  to  confer  with  the  Boers. 

On  his  way  to  Mokhatla  he  was  surprised  at  the  unusual 
density  of  the  population,  giving  him  the  opportunity  of 
preaching  the  gospel  at  least  once  every  day.  The  chief, 
Mokhatla,  whose  people  were  quiet  and  industrious,  was 
eager  to  get  a  missionary,  but  said  that  an  arrangement 
must  be  made  with  the  Dutch  commandant.  This  involved 
some  delay. 

Livingstone  then  returned  to  Chonuane,  finished  the 
erection  of  a  school  there,  and  setting  systematic  instruction 
fairly  in  operation  under  Paul  and  his  son,  Isaac,  again 
went  eastward,  accompanied  this  time  by  Mrs.  Livingstone 
and  their  infant  son,  Robert  Moffat^ — all  the  three  being 

^  He  wrote  to  his  father  that  he  would  have  called  him  Neil,  if  it  had  not 
been  such  an  ug:lv  name,  and  aU  tiie  people  woald  have  calkd  him  Ra-Neelejl 


96  DA  VID  LIVIITQSTONK 

in  indifferent  health.  Mebalwe,  the  catechist,  was  also  with 
them.  Taking  a  different  route,  they  came  on  another  Ba- 
khatla  tribe,  whose  country  abounded  in  metallic  ores,  and 
who,  besides  cultivating  their  fields,  span  cotton,  smelted 
iron,  copper,  and  tin,  made  an  alloy  of  tin  and  copper, 
and  manufactured  ornaments.  Livingstone  had  constantly 
an  eye  to  the  industries  and  commercial  capabilities  of  th© 
countries  he  passed  through.  Social  reform  was  certainly 
much  needed  here;  for  the  chief,  though  not  twenty  years 
of  age,  had  already  forty-eight  wives  and  twenty  children. 
They  heard  of  another  tribe,  said  to  excel  all  others  in 
manufacturing  skill,  and  having  the  honorable  distinction, 
"they  had  never  been  known  to  kill  any  one."  This  lily 
among  thorns  they  were  unable  to  visit.  Three  tribes  of 
Bakhalaka  whom  they  did  visit  were  at  contiuual  war. 

Deriving  his  information  from  the  Boers  themselves, 
Livingstone  learned  that  they  had  taken  possession  of  nearly 
all  the  fountains,  so  that  the  natives  lived  in  the  country 
only  by  sufferance.  The  chiefs  were  compelled  to  furnish 
the  emigrants  with  as  much  free  labor  as  they  required. 
This  was  in  return  for  the  privilege  of  living  in  the  country 
of  the  Boers!  The  absence  of  law  left  the  natives  open  to 
innumerable  wrongs  which  the  better-disposed  of  the  emi- 
grants lamented,  but  could  not  prevent.  Livingstone  found 
that  the  forcible  seizure  of  cattle  was  a  common  occurrence, 
but  another  custom  was  even  worse.  When  at  war,  the 
Dutch  forced  natives  to  assist  them,  and  sent  them  before 
them  into  battle,  to  encounter  the  battle-axes  of  their  oppo- 
nents, while  the  Dutch  fired  in  safety  at  their  enemies  over 
the  heads  of  their  native  allies.  Of  course  all  the  disasters 
of  the  war  fell  on  the  natives ;  the  Dutch  had  only  the 
glory  and  the  spoil.  Such  treatment  of  the  natives  burned 
into  the  very  soul  of  Livingstone.  He  was  specially  dis- 
tressed at  the  purpose  expressed  to  pick  a  quarrel  with 
Sechele,  for  whatever  the  emigrants  might  say  of  other 
tribes,  they  could  not  but  admit  that  the  Bechuanas  had 
i^een  always  an  honest  and  peaceable  people. 


FIRST  TWO  STATIONS,  97 

When  Livingstone  met  the  Dutch  commandant  he 
received  favorably  his  proposal  of  a  native  missionary,  but 
another  obstacle  arose.  Near  the  proposed  station  lived  a 
Dutch  emigrant  who  had  shown  himself  the  inveterate 
enemy  of  missions.  He  had  not  scrupled  to  say  that  the 
proper  way  to  treat  any  native  missionary  was  to  kill  him. 
Livingstone  was  unwilling  to  plant  Mebalwe  beside  so 
bloodthirsty  a  neighbor,  and  as  he  had  not  time  to  go  to 
him,  and  try  to  bring  him  to  a  better  mind,  and  there  was 
plenty  of  work  to  be  done  at  the  station,  they  all  returned 
to  Chonuane. 

"  We  have  now,"  says  Livingstone  (March,  1847),  "  been  a 
little  more  than  a  year  with  the  Bakwains.  No  conversions 
have  taken  place,  but  real  progress  has  been  made."  He 
adverts  to  the  way  in  which  the  Sabbath  was  observed,  no 
work  being  done  by  the  natives  in  the  gardens  that  day, 
and  hunting  being  suspended.  Their  superstitious  belief 
in  rain-maiking  had  got  a  blow.  There  was  a  real  desire 
for  knowledge,  though  hindered  by  the  prevailing  famine 
caused  by  the  want  of  rain.  There  was  also  a  general  im- 
pression among  the  people  that  the  missionaries  were  their 
friends.  But  civilization  apart  from  conversion  would  be 
but  a  poor  recompense  for  their  labor. 

But,  whatever  success  might  attend  their  work  among 
the  Bakwains,  Livingstone's  soul  was  soaring  beyond  them: 

"  I  am  more  and  more  convinced,"  he  writes  to  the  Directors,  "  that 
in  order  to  the  permanent  settlement  of  the  gospel  in  any  part,  the 
natives  must  be  taught  to  relinquish  their  reliance  on  Europe.  An  on- 
ward movement  ought  to  be  made  whether  men  will  hear  or  whether  they 
will  forbear.  I  tell  my  Bakwains  that  if  spared  ten  years,  I  shall  move 
©n  to  regions  beyond  them.  If  our  missions  would  move  onward  now 
to  those  regions  I  have  lately  visited,  they  would  in  all  probability  pre- 
vent the  natives  settling  into  that  state  of  determined  hatred  to  all 
Europeans  which  I  fear  now  characterizes  most  of  the  Caffres  n^^r  the 
Colony.  If  natives  are  not  elevated  by  contact  with  Europeans,  they 
are  sure  to  be  deteriorated.  It  is  with  pain  I  have  observed  that  all 
the  tribes  I  have  lately  seen  are  undergoing  the  latter  process.  Tha 
0 


98  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

country  is  fine.  It  abounds  in  streams,  iind  has  many  consiaeraole 
rivers.  The  Boers  hate  missionaries,  but  by  a  kind  and  prudent  course 
of  conduct  one  can  easily  manage  them.  Medicines  are  eagerly  re- 
ceived, and  I  intend  to  procure  a  supply  of  Dutch  tracts  for  distribution 
among  them.  The  natives  who  have  been  in  subjection  to  Mosilikatse 
place  unbounded  confidence  in  missionaries." 

In  his  letters  to  friends  at  home,  whatever  topic  Living- 
stone may  touch,  we  see  evidence  of  one  over-master- 
ing idea — the  vastness  of  Africa,  and  the  duty  of  beginning 
a  new  area  of  enterprise  to  reach  its  people.  Among 
his  friends  the  Scotch  Congregationalists,  there  had 
been  a  keen  controversy  on  some  points  of  Calvinism. 
Livingstone  did  not  like  it ;  he  was  not  a  high  Calvinist 
theoretically,  yet  he  could  not  accept  the  new  views,  "  from 
a  secret  feeling  of  being  absolutely  at  the  divine  disposal 
as  a  sinner ; "  but  these  were  theoretical  questions,  and  with 
dark  Africa  around  him,  he  did  not  see  why  the  brethren 
at  home  should  split  on  them.  Missionary  influence  in 
South  Africa  was  directed  in  a  wrong  channel.  There 
were  three  times  too  many  missionaries  in  the  colony,  and 
vast  regions  beyond  lay  untouched.  He  wrote  to  Mr. 
Watt :  "  If  you  meet  me  down  in  the  colony  before  eight 
years  are  expired,  you  may  shoot  me." 

Of  his  employments  and  studies  he  gives  the  following 
account:  "I  get  the  Evangelical,  Scottish  Congregationcdf 
Eclectic,  Lancet,  British  and  Foreign  Medical  Review.  I  can 
read  in  journeying,  but  little  at  home.  Building,  garden- 
ing, cobbling,  doctoring,  tinkering,  carpentering,  gun- 
mending,  farriering,  wagon-mending,  preaching,  schooling, 
lecturing  on  physics  according  to  my  means,  beside  a  chair 
in  divinity  to  a  class  of  three,  fill  up  my  time." 

With  all  his  other  work,  he  was  still  enthusiastic  in 
science.  "I  have  written  Professor  Buckland,"  he  says  to 
Mr.  Watt  (May,  1845),  "and  send  him  specimens  too,  but 
have  not  received  any  answer.  I  have  a  great  lot  by  me 
now.     I  don't  know  whether  he  received  my  letter  or  not. 


FIRST  TWO  STATIONS.  99 

Could  you  ascertain?  I  am  trying  to  procure  specimens 
of  the  entire  geology  of  this  region,  and  will  try  and  make 
a  sort  of  chart,  I  am  taking  double  specimens  now,  so  that 
if  one  part  is  lost,  I  can  send  another.  The  great  difficulty 
is  transmission.  I  sent  a  dissertation  on  the  decrease  of 
water  in  Africa.  Call  on  Professor  Owen  and  ask  if  he 
wants  anything  in  the  four  jars  I  still  possess,  of  either 
rhinoceros,  camelopard,  etc.,  etc.  If  he  wants  these,  or  any- 
thing else  these  jars  will  hold,  he  must  send  me  more  jars 
and  spirits  of  wine." 

He  afterward  heard  of  the  fate  of  one  of  the  boxes  of 
specimens  he  had  sent  home — that  which  contained  tiie 
fossils  of  Bootchap.  It  was  lost  on  the  railway  after  reaching 
England,  in  custody  of  a  friend.  "The  thief  thought  the 
box  contained  bullion,  no  doubt.  You  may  think  of  one 
of  the  faces  in  Punch  as  that  of  the  scoundrel,  when  he 
found  in  the  box  a  lot  of '  chuckystanes.' "  He  had  got  many 
nocturnal-feeding  animals,  but  the  heat  made  it  very  diffi- 
cult to  preserve  them.  Many  valuable  seeds  he  had  sent 
to  Calcutta,  with  the  nuts  of  the  desert,  but  had  heard 
nothing  of  them.  He  had  lately  got  knowledge  of  a 
root  to  which  the  same  virtues  were  attached  as  to  ergot  of 
rye.  He  tells  his  friend  about  the  tsetse,  the  fever,  the 
north  wind,  and  other  African  notabilia.  These  and  many 
other  interesting  points  of  information  are  followed  up  by 
the  significant  question — 

"Who  will  penetkate  thbough  ArBiCA?" 


;00  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

CHAPTER  V. 

THIRD  STATION — KOLOBENG. 
A.D.  1847-1852. 

Want  of  rain  at  Chonuane — Removal  to  Kolobeng — House-building  and  public 
v^rorks — Hopeful  prospects — Letters  to  Mr.  Watt,  his  sister,  and  Dr.  Bennett 
— The  church  at  Kolobeng — Pure  communion — Conversion  of  Sech^le — 
Letter  from  his  brother  Charles — His  history — Livingstone's  relations  with 
the  Boers — He  cannot  get  native  teachers  planted  in  the  East — Resolves  to 
explore  northwards — Extracts  from  Journal — Scarcity  of  water — Wild  ani- 
mals and  other  risks — Custom-house  robberies  and  annoyances — Visit  from 
Secretary  of  London  Missionary  Society — Manifold  employments  of  Living- 
stone— Studies  in  Sichuana — His  reflection  on  this  period  of  his  life  while 
detained  at  Manyuema  in  1870. 

The  residence  of  the  Livingstones  at  Chonuane  was  of 
short  continuance.  The  want  of  rain  was  fatal  to  agricul- 
ture, and  about  equally  fatal  to  the  mission.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  remove  to  a  neighborhood  where  water  could  be 
obtained.  The  new  locality  chosen  was  on  the  banks  of 
the  river  Kolobeng,  about  forty  miles  distant  from  Chonuane. 
In  a  letter  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  his  early  and 
warm  friend  and  fellow-traveler,  Mr.  Oswell,  thus  describes 
Kolobeng:  "The  town  stands  in  naked  deformity  on  the 
side  of  and  under  a  ridge  of  red  ironstone;  the  mission- 
house  on  a  little  rocky  eminence  over  the  river  Kolobeng." 
Livingstone  had  pointed  out  to  the  chief  that  the  only 
feasible  way  of  watering  the  gardens  was  to  select  some 
good  never-failing  river,  make  a  canal,  and  irrigate  the 
adjacent  lands.  The  wonderful  influence  which  he  had 
acquired  was  apparent  from  the  fact  that  the  very  morning 
after  he  told  them  of  his  intention  to  move  to  the  Kolo- 
beng, the  whole  tribe  was  in  motion  for  the  "flitting." 
Livingstone  had  to  set  to  work  at  his  old  business — building 
a  house — the  third  which  he  had  reared  with  his  own 


THIRD  STATION.  101 

hands.  It  was  a  mere  hut — for  a  permanent  house  he  had 
to  wait  a  year.  The  natives,  of  course,  had  their  huts  to 
rear  and  their  gardens  to  prepare ;  but,  besides  this,  Living- 
stone set  them  to  public  works.  For  irrigating  their  gar- 
dens, a  dam  had  to  be  dug  and  a  water-course  scooped  out; 
sixty-five  of  the  younger  men  dug  the  dam,  and  forty  of 
the  older  made  the  water-course.  The  erection  of  the 
school  was  undertaken  by  the  chief  Sechele;  "I  desire," 
he  said,  "to  build  a  house  for  God,  the  defender  of  my  town, 
and  that  you  be  at  no  expense  for  it  whatever."  Two 
hundred  of  his  people  were  employed  in  this  work. 

Livingstone  had  hardly  had  time  to  forget  his  building 
troubles  at  Mabotsa  and  Chonuane,  when  he  began  this 
new  enterprise.  But  he  was  in  much  better  spirits,  much 
more  hopeful  than  he  had  been.  Writing  to  Mr.  Watt  on 
13th  February,  1848,  he  says : — 

"All  our  meetings  are  good  compared  to  those  we  had  at  Mabotsa, 
and  some  of  them  admit  of  no  comparison  whatever.  Erer  since  we 
moved,  we  |have  been  incessantly  engaged  in  manual  labor.  We  have 
endeavored,  as  far  as  possible,  to  carry  on  systematic  instruction  at  the 
same  time,  but  have  felt  it  very  hard  pressure  on  our  energies.  .  .  , 
Our  daily  labors  are  in  the  following  sort  of  order: 

"We  get  up  as  soon  as  we  can,  generally  with  the  sun  in  summer, 
then  have  family  worship,  breakfast,  and  school ;  and  as  soon  as  these 
are  over  we  begin  the  manual  operations  needed,  sowing,  ploughing, 
smithy  work,  and  every  other  sort  of  work  by  turns  as  required.  My 
better-half  is  employed  all  the  morning  in  culinary  or  other  work;  and 
feeling  pretty  well  tired  by  dinner-time,  we  take  about  two  hours'  rest 
then  ;  but  more  frequently,  without  the  respite  I  try  to  secure  for  myself, 
©he  goes  off  to  hold  infant-school,  and  this,  I  am  happy  to  say,  is  very 
popular  with  the  youngsters.  She  sometimes  has  eighty,  but  the  average 
may  be  sixty.  My  manual  labors  are  continued  till  about  five  o'clock. 
I  then  go  into  the  town  to  give  lessons  and  talk  to  any  one  who  may  be 
disposed  for  it.  As  soon  as  the  cows  are  milked  we  have  a  meeting,  and 
this  is  followed  by  a  prayer-meeting  in  Secheles  house,  which  brings  me 
home  about  half-past  eight,  and  generally  tired  enough,  too  fatigued  to 
think  of  any  mental  exertion.  I  do  not  enumerate  these  duties  by  way 
of  telling  how  much  we  do,  but  to  let  you  know  a  cause  of  sorrow  I  hare 
that  so  little  of  my  time  is  devoted  to  real  missionary  work." 


102  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

First  there  was  a  teraporary  house  to  be  built,  then  a  per- 
manent one,  and  Livingstone  was  not  exempted  from  the 
casualties  of  mechanics.  Once  he  found  himself  dangling 
from  a  beam  by  his  weak  arm.  Another  time  he  had  a 
fall  from  the  roof.  A  third  time  he  cut  himself  severely 
with  an  axe.  Working  on  the  roof  in  the  sun,  his  lips  got 
all  scabbed  and  broken.  If  he  mentions  such  things  to 
Dr.  Bennett  or  other  friend,  it  is  either  in  the  way  of  illus- 
trating some  medical  point  or  to  explain  how  he  had  never 
found  time  to  take  the  latitude  of  his  station  till  he  was 
stopped  working  by  one  of  these  accidents.  At  best  it  was 
weary  work.  "  Two  days  ago,"  he  writes  to  his  sister  Janet 
(5th  July,  1848),  "  we  entered  our  new  house.  What  a  mercy 
to  be  in  a  house  again  1  A  year  in  a  little  hut  through 
which  the  wind  blew  our  candles  into  glorious  icicles  (as  a 
poet  would  say)  by  night,  and  in  which  crowds  of  flies  con- 
tinually settled  on  the  eyes  of  our  poor  little  brats  by  day, 
makes  us  value  our  present  castle.  Oh,  Janet,  know  thou, 
if  thou  art  given  to  building  castles  in  the  air,  that  that  is 
easy  work  to  erecting  cottages  on  the  ground."  He  could 
not  quite  forget  that  it  was  unfair  treatment  that  had  driven 
him  from  Mabotsa,  and  involved  him  in  these  labors.  "I 
often  think,"  he  writes  to  Dr.  Bennett,  "  I  have  forgiven,  as 
I  hope  to  be  forgiven;  but  the  remembrance  of  sland^ 
often  comes  boiling  up,  although  I  hate  to  think  of  it. 
You  must  remember  me  in  your  prayers,  that  more  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ  may  be  imparted  to  me.  All  my  plans  of 
mental  culture  have  been  broken  through  by  manual  labor. 
I  shall  soon,  however,  be  obliged  to  give  my  son  and 
daughter  a  jog  along  the  path  to  learning.  .  .  .  Your 
family  increases  very  fast,  and  I  fear  we  follow  in  your 
wake.  I  cannot  realize  the  idea  of  your  sitting  with  four 
around  you,  and  I  can  scarcely  believe  myself  to  be  so  far 
advanced  as  to  be  the  father  of  two." 

Livingstone  never  expected  the  work  of  real  Christianity 
to  advance  rapidly  among  the  Bakwains.     They  w&re  a 


THIRD  STATIOK  103 

slow  people  and  took  long  to  move.  But  it  was  not  his 
desire  to  have  a  large  church  of  nominal  adherents. 
"  Nothing,"  he  writes,  "  will  induce  me  to  form  an  impure 
church.  Fifty  added  to  the  church  sounds  fine  at  home, 
but  if  only  five  of  these  are  genuine,  what  will  it  profit  in 
the  Great  Day  ?  I  have  felt  more  than  ever  lately  that  the 
great  object  of  our  exertions  ought  to  be  conversion." 
There  was  no  subject  on  which  Livingstone  had  stronger 
feelings  than  on  purity  of  communion.  For  two  whole 
years  he  allowed  no  dispensation  of  the  Lord's  SujDper,  be- 
cause he  did  not  deem  the  professing  Christians  to  be  living 
consistently.  Here  was  a  crowning  proof  of  his  hatred 
of  all  sham  and  false  pretense,  and  his  intense  love  of  solid, 
thorough,  finished  work. 

Hardly  were  things  begun  to  be  settled  at  Kolobeng, 
when,  by  way  of  relaxation,  Livingstone  (January,  1848) 
again  moved  eastward.  He  would  have  gone  sooner,  but 
"  a  mad  sort  of  Scotchman,"  ^  having  wandered  past  them 
shooting  elephants,  and  lost  all  his  cattle  by  the  bite  of  the 
tsetse-fly,  Livingstone  had  to  go  to  his  help ;  and  moreover 
the  dam,  having  burst,  required  to  be  repaired.  Sechele 
set  out  to  accompany  him,  and  intended  to  go  with  him  the 
whole  way ;  but  some  friends  having  come  to  visit  his  tribe, 
he  had  to  return,  or  at  least  did  return,  leaving  Livingstone 
four  gallons  of  porridge,  and  two  servants  to  act  in  his 
stead.  "  He  is  about  the  only  individual,"  says  Livingstone, 
"  who  possesses  distinct,  consistent  views  on  the  subject  of 
our  mission.  He  is  bound  by  his  wives :  has  a  curious 
idea — would  like  to  go  to  another  country  for  three  or  four 
years  in  order  to  study,  with  the  hope  that  probably  his 
wives  would  have  married  others  in  the  meantime.  He 
would  then  return,  and  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  teach  his  people  the  knowledge  he  has  acquired. 
He  seems  incapable  of  putting  them  away.     He  feels  so 

^  Mr.  Grordoa  Cummilig. 


104  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

attached  to  them,  and  indeed  we,  too,  feel  much  attached  to 
most  of  them.  They  are  our  best  scholars,  our  constant 
friends.  We  earnestly  pray  that  they,  too,  may  be  en- 
lightened by  the  Spirit  of  God." 

The  prayer  regarding  Sechele  was  answered  soon.  Re- 
viewing the  year  1844  in  a  letter  to  the  Directors,  Living- 
stone says :  "  An  event  that  excited  more  open  enmity  than 
any  other  was  the  profession  of  faith  and  subsequent  re- 
ception of  the  chief  into  the  church." 

During  the  first  years  at  Kolobeng  he  received  a  long 
letter  from  his  younger  brother  Charles,  then  in  the 
United  States,  requesting  him  to  use  his  influence  with 
the  London  Missionary  Society  that  he  might  be  sent  as  a 
missionary  to  China.  In  writing  to  the  Directors  about 
his  brother,  in  reply  to  this  request,  Livingstone  disclaimed 
all  idea  of  influencing  them  except  in  so  far  as  he  might 
be  able  to  tell  them  facts.  His  brother's  history  was  very 
interesting  In  1839,  when  David  Livingstone  was  in 
England,  Charles  became  earnest  about  religion,  influ- 
enced partly  by  the  thought  that  as  his  brother,  to  whom 
he  was  most  warmly  attached,  was  going  abroad,  he  might 
never  see  him  again  in  this  world,  and  therefore  he  would 
prepare  to  meet  him  in  the  next.  A  strong  desire  sprang 
up  in  his  mind  to  obtain  a  liberal  education.  Not  having 
the  means  to  get  this  at  home,  he  was  advised  by  David  to 
go  to  America,  and  endeavor  to  obtain  admission  to  one 
of  the  colleges  there  where  the  students  support  them- 
selves by  manual  labor.  To  help  him  in  this,  David  sent 
him  five  pounds,  which  he  had  just  received  from  the 
Society,  being  the  whole  of  his  quarter's  allowance  in 
London.  On  landing  at  New  York,  after  selling  his  box 
and  bed,  Charles  found  his  whole  stock  of  cash  to  amount 
to  £2,  13s.  6d.  Purchasing  a  loaf  and  a  piece  of  cheese  as 
viaMcum,  he  started  for  a  college  at  Oberlin,  seven  hun- 
dred miles  off",  where  Dr.  Finney  was  President.  He 
contrived  to  get  to  the  college  without  having  ever  begged. 


THIRD  STATION,  105 

In  the  third  year  he  entered  on  a  theological  course,  with 
the  view  of  becoming  a  missionary.  He  did  not  wish,  and 
could  never  agree,  as  a  missionary,  to  hold  an  appointment 
from  an  American  Society,  on  account  of  the  relation  of 
the  American  Churches  to  slavery ;  therefore  he  applied  to 
the  London  Missionary  Society.  David  had  suggested  to 
his  father  that  if  Charles  was  to  be  a  missionary,  he  ought 
to  direct  his  attention  to  China.  Livingstone's  first  mis- 
sionary love  had  not  become  cold,  and  much  though  he 
might  have  wished  to  have  his  brother  in  Africa,  he  acted 
consistently  on  his  old  conviction  that  there  were  enough 
of  English  missionaries  there,  and  that  China  had  much 
more  need. 

The  Directors  declined  to  appoint  Charles  Livingstone 
without  a  personal  visit,  which  he  could  not  afford  to 
make.  This  circumstance  led  him  to  accept  a  pastorate  in 
New  England,  where  he  remained  until  1857,  when  he 
came  to  this  country  and  joined  his  brother  in  the  Zam- 
besi Expedition.  Afterward  he  was  appointed  H.  M. 
Consul  at  Fernando  Po,  but  being  always  delicate,  he 
succumbed  to  the  climate  of  the  country,  and  died  a  few 
months  after  his  brother,  on  his  way  home,  in  October, 
1873.  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  as  President  of  the  Eoyal  Geo- 
graphical Society,  paid  a  deserved  tribute  to  his  affec- 
tionate and  earnest  nature,  his  consistent  Christian  life, 
and  his  valuable  help  to  Christian  missions  and  the  Afri- 
can cause  generally.^ 

Livingstone's  relations  with  the  Boers  did  not  improve. 
He  has  gone  so  fully  into  this  subject  in  his  Misdonary 
Travels  that  a  very  slight  reference  to  it  is  all  that  is 
needed  here.  It  was  at  first  very  difficult  for  him  to  com- 
prehend how  the  most  flagrant  injustice  and  inhumanity 
to  the  black  race  could  be  combined,  as  he  found  it  to  be, 
with  kindness  and  general  respectability,  and  even  with 

*  Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  1874,  p.  cxxviii. 


106  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

the  profession  of  piety.  He  only  came  to  comprehend  this 
when,  after  more  experience,  he  understood  the  demorali- 
zation which  the  slave-system  produces.  It  was  necessary 
for  the  Boers  to  possess  themselves  of  children  for  servants, 
and  believing  or  fancying  that  in  some  tribe  an  insurrec- 
tion was  plotting,  they  would  fall  on  that  tribe  and  bring 
off  a  number  of  the  children.  The  most  foul  massacres 
Were  justified  on  the  ground  that  they  were  necessary  to 
subdue  the  troublesome  tendencies  of  the  people,  and 
"iherefore  essential  to  permanent  peace.  Livingstone  felt 
keenly  that  the  Boers  who  came  to  live  among  the  Bak- 
wains  made  no  distinction  between  them  and  the  Caffres, 
although  the  Bechuanas  were  noted  for  honesty,  and  never 
attacked  cithers  Boers  or  English.  On  the  principle  of 
elevating  vague  rumors  into  alarming  facts,  the  Boers  of 
the  Cashan  Mountains,  having  heard  that  Sechele  waa 
possessed  of  fire-arms  (the  number  of  his  muskets  was 
five!)  multiplied  the  number  by  a  hundred,  and  threat- 
ened him  with  an  invasion.  Livingstone,  who  was 
accused  of  supplying  these  arms,  went  to  the  commandant 
Krieger,  and  prevailed  upon  him  to  defer  the  expedition, 
but  refused  point-blank  to  comply  with  Krieger's  wish 
that  he  should  act  as  a  spy  on  the  Bakwains.  Threaten- 
ing messages  continued  to  be  sent  to  Sechele,  ordering  him 
to  surrender  himself,  and  to  prevent  English  traders  from 
passing  through  his  country,  or  selling  fire-arms  to  his 
people.  On  one  occasion  Livingstone  was  told  by  Mr.  Pot- 
geiter,  a  leading  Dutchman,  that  he  would  attack  any  tribe 
that  might  receive  a  native  teacher.  Livingstone  was  so 
thoroughly  identified  with  the  natives  that  it  became  the 
desire  of  the  colonists  to  get  rid  of  him  and  all  his  belong- 
ings, and  complaints  were  made  of  him  to  the  Colonial 
Grovernment  as  a  dangerous  person  that  ought  not  to  be  let 
alone. 

All  this  made  it  very  clear  to  Livingstone  that  his  favorite 
plan  of  planting  native  teacheiSB  to  the  eastward  could  net 


THIRD  STATION  107 

be  carried  into  effect,  at  least  for  the  present.  His  dis- 
appointment in  this  was  only  another  link  in  the  chain  of 
causes  that  gave  to  the  latter  part  of  his  life  so  unlooked- 
for  but  glorious  a  destination.  It  set  him  to  inquire  whether 
in  some  other  direction  he  might  not  find  a  sphere  for 
planting  native  teachers  which  the  jealousy  of  the  Boers 
prevented  in  the  east. 

Before  we  set  out  with  him  on  the  northward  journeys, 
to  which  he  was  led  partly  by  the  hostility  of  the  Boers  in 
the  east,  and  partly  by  the  very  distressing  failure  of  rain 
at  Kolobeng,  a  few  extracts  may  be  given  from  a  record  of 
the  period  entitled  "A  portion  of  a  Journal  lost  in  the 
destruction  of  Kolobeng  (September,  1853)  by  the  Boers  of 
f^retorius."  Livingstone  appears  to  have  kept  journals 
^om  an  early  period  of  his  life  with  characteristic  care  and 
neatness ;  but  that  ruthless  and  most  atrocious  raid  of  the 
Boers,  which  we  shall  have  to  notice  hereafter,  deprived 
him  of  all  them  up  to  that  date.  The  treatment  of  his 
books  on  that  occasion  was  one  of  the  most  exasperating 
of  his  trials.  Had  they  been  burned  or  carried  off  he  would 
have  minded  it  less ;  but  it  was  unspeakably  provoking  to 
hear  of  them  lying  about  with  handfuls  of  leaves  torn  out 
of  them,  or  otherwise  mutilated  and  destroyed.  From  the 
wreck  of  his  journals  the  only  part  saved  was  a  few  pages 
containing  notes  of  some  occurrences  in  1848-49 : 

"  May  20,  1848. — Spoke  to  Sechele  of  the  evil  of  trusting  in  medicines 
instead  of  Grod.  He  felt  afraid  to  dispute  on  the  subject,  and  said  he 
would  give  up  all  medicine  if  I  only  told  him  to  do  so.  I  was  gratified 
to  see  symptoms  of  tender  conscience.     May  God  enlighten  him  ! 

"  July  l^th. — Entered  new  house  on  4th  curt.  A  great  mercy.  Hope 
it  may  be  more  a  house  of  prayer  than  any  we  have  yet  inhabited. 

^^  Sunday^  August  6. — Sechdle  remained  as  a  spectator  at  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  when  we  retired  he  asked  me  how  he 
ought  to  act  with  reference  to  his  superfluous  wives,  as  he  greatly  desired 
to  conform  to  the  will  of  Christ,  be  baptized,  and  observe  his  ordinances. 
Advised  him  to  do  according  to  what  he  saw  written  in  God's  Book,  but 
to  treat  them  gently,  for  they  had  sinned  in  ignorance,  and  if  driven 
away  hastily  might  be  lost  etem&llj* 


108  DAVID  LIVINOSTONK 

"  Sept.  1. — Much  opposition,  but  none  manifested  to  U8  as  individuals. 
Some,  however,  say  it  was  a  pity  the  lion  did  not  kill  me  at  Mabotsa. 
They  curse  the  chief  (Sechele)  with  very  bitter  curses,  and  these  come 
from  the  mouths  of  those  whom  Sech6le  would  formerly  have  destroyed 
for  a  single  disrespectful  word.  The  truth  will,  by  the  aid  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  ultimately  prevail. 

"  Oct.  1. — Sech6le  baptized ;  also  Setefano. 

^^  Nov. — Long  for  rains.  Everything  languishes  during  the  intense 
heat ;  and  successive  droughts  having  only  occurred  since  the  Gospel 
came  to  the  Bak wains,  I  fear  the  effect  will  be  detrimental.  There  is 
abundance  of  rain  all  around  us.  And  yet  we,  who  have  our  chief  at 
our  head  in  attachment  to  the  Gospel,  receive  not  a  drop.  Has  Satan 
power  over  the  course  of  the  winds  and  clouds?  Feel  afraid  he  will 
obtain  an  advantage  over  us,  but  must  be  resigned  entirely  to  the  trivine 
will. 

"  Nov.  27. — 0  Devil  I  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  art  thou  hinder- 
ing us?  Greater  is  He  who  is  for  us  than  all  who  can  be  against  us- 
I  intend  to  proceed  with  Paul  to  Mokhatla's.  He  feels  much  pleased 
with  the  prospect  of  forming  a  new  station.  May  God  Almighty  bless 
the  poor  unworthy  effort !  Mebalwe's  house  finished.  Preparing  wood- 
work for  Paul's  house. 

'''Dec.  16. — Passed  by  invitation  to  Hendrick  Potgeiter.  Opposed  to 
building  a  school.  .  .  .  Told  him  if  he  hindered  the  Gospel  the 
blood  of  these  people  would  be  required  at  his  hand.  He  became  much 
excited  at  this. 

"  T>ec.  17. — Met  Dr.  Robertson,  of  Swellendam.  Very  friendly.  Boers 
very  violently  opposed.  .  .  .  Went  to  Pilanies.  Had  large  atten- 
tive audiences  at  two  villages  when  on  the  way  home.  Paul  and  I 
looked  for  a  ford  in  a  dry  river.  Found  we  had  got  a  she  black  rhino- 
ceros between  us  and  the  wagon,  which  was  only  twenty  yards  off.  She 
had  calved  during  the  night — a  little  red  beast  like  a  dog.  She  charged 
the  wagon,  split  a  spoke  and  a  felloe  with  her  horn,  and  then  left.  Paul 
and  I  jumped  into  a  rut,  as  the  guns  were  in  the  wagon." 

The  black  rhinoceros  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  of 
the  wild  be€ists  of  Africa,  and  travelers  stand  in  great  awe 
of  it.  The  courage  of  Dr.  Livingstone  in  exposing  himself 
to  the  risk  of  such  animals  on  this  missionary  tour  was 
none  the  less  that  he  himself  says  not  a  word  regarding  it; 
but  such  courage  was  constantly  shown  by  him.  The 
following  instances  are  given  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Mofifat 
as  samples  of  what  was  habitual  to  Dr.  Livincstone  ir»  the 
performs  nee  of  his  dut^ 


THIRD  STATION.  109 

In  going  through  a  wood,  a  party  of  hunters  were 
Btartled  by  the  appearance  of  a  black  rhinoceros.  The 
furious  beast  dashed  at  the  wagon,  and  drove  his  horn  into 
the  bowels  of  the  driver,  inflicting  a  frightful  wound.  A 
messenger  was  despatched  in  the  greatest  haste  for  Dr. 
Livingstone,  whose  house  was  eight  or  ten  miles  distant. 
The  messenger  in  his  eagerness  ran  the  whole  way. 
Livingstone's  friends  were  horror-struck  at  the  idea  of  his 
riding  through  the  wood  at  night,  exposed  to  the  rhino- 
ceros and  other  deadly  beasts.  "  No,  no ;  you  must  not 
think  of  it,  Livingstone;  it  is  certain  death."  Livingstone 
believed  it  was  a  Christian  duty  to  try  to  save  the  poor 
fellow's  life,  and  he  resolved  to  go,  happen  what  might. 
Mounting  his  horse,  he  rode  to  the  scene  of  the  accident. 
The  man  had  died,  and  the  wagon  had  left,  so  that  there 
was  nothing  for  Livingstone  but  to  return  and  run  the  risk 
of  the  forest  anew,  without  even  the  hope  that  he  might 
be  useful  in  saving  life. 

Another  time,  when  he  and  a  brother  missionary  were 
on  a  tour  a  long  way  from,  home,  a  messenger  came  to  tell 
his  companion  that  one  of  his  children  was  alarmingly 
ill.  It  was  but  natural  for  him  to  desire  Livingstone  to  go 
back  with  him.  The  way  lay  over  a  road  infested  by  lions. 
Livingstone's  life  would  be  in  danger;  moreover,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  was  intensely  desirous  to  examine  the  fossil 
bones  at  the  place.  But  when  his  friend  expressed  the 
desire  for  him  to  go,  he  went  without  hesitation.  His  firm 
belief  in  Providence  sustained  him  in  these  as  in  so  many 
other  dangers. 

Medical  practice  was  certainly  not  made  easier  by  what 
happened  to  some  of  his  packages  from  England.  Writ- 
ing to  his  father-in-law,  Mr.  Moffat  (18th  January,  1849), 
he  says : 

"  Most  of  our  boxes  which  come  to  us  from  England  are  opened,  and 
usually  lightened  of  their  contents.     You  will  perhaps  remember  one  in 
which  Sechele's  cloak  was.     It  contained,  on  leaving  Glasgow,  besidea 
10 


no  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

the  articles  wnicn  came  here,  a  parcel  of  surgical  instruments  which  I 
ordered,  and  of  course  paid  for.  One  of  these  was  a  valuable  cupping 
apparatus.  The  value  at  which  the  instruments  were  purchased  for  me 
was  £4,  12s.,  their  real  value  much  more. 

"  The  box  which  you  kindly  packed  for  us  and  despatched  to  Glasgow 
has,  we  hear,  been  gutted  by  the  Custom-House  thieves,  and  only  a  very 
few  plain  karosses  left  in  it.  When  we  see  a  box  which  has  been  opened 
we  have  not  half  the  pleasure  which  we  otherwise  should  in  unpacking 
it.  .  .  .  Can  you  give  me  any  information  how  these  annoyances 
may  be  prevented  ?  Or  must  we  submit  to  it  as  one  of  the  crooked 
things  of  this  life,  which  Solomon  says  cannot  be  made  straight?" 

Not  only  in  these  scenes  of  active  missionary  labor,  but 
everywhere  else,  Livingstone  was  in  the  habit  of  preaching 
to  the  natives,  and  conversing  seriously  with  them  on 
religion,  his  favorite  topics  being  the  love  of  Christ,  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  the  resurrection,  and  the  last  judg- 
ment. His  preaching  to  them,  in  Dr.  Moffat's  judgment, 
was  highly  effective.  It  was  simple,  scriptural,  conver- 
sational, went  straight  to  the  point,  was  well  fitted  to  arrest 
the  attention,  and  remarkably  adapted  to  the  capacity  of 
the  people.  To  his  father  he  writes  (5th  July,  1848) :  "  For 
a  long  time  I  felt  much  depressed  after  preaching  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ  to  apparently  insensible  hearts ; 
but  now  I  like  to  dwell  on  the  love  of  the  great  Mediator, 
for  it  always  warms  my  own  heart,  and  I  know  that  the 
gospel  is  the  power  of  God — the  great  means  which  He 
employs  for  the  regeneration  of  our  ruined  world." 

In  the  beginning  of  1849  Livingstone  made  the  first  of 
a  series  of  journeys  to  the  north,  in  the  hope  of  planting 
native  missionaries  among  the  people.  Not  to  interrupt 
the  continuous  account  of  these  journeys,  we  may  advert 
here  to  a  visit  paid  to  him  at  Kolobeng,  on  his  return  from 
the  first  of  them,  in  the  end  of  the  year,  by  Mr.  Freeman 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  who  was  at  that  time 
visiting  the  African  stations.  Mr.  Freeman,  to  Living- 
stone's regret,  was  in  favor  of  keeping  up  all  Colonial 
stations,  because  the  London  Society  alone  paid  attention 


THIRD  STATION,  111 

%  the  black  population.     He  was  no*  mucli  in  sympathy 
rith  Livingstone. 

"Ifr.  Freeman,"  he  writes  confidentially  to  Mr.  Watt,  "gave  us  no 
hope  to  expect  any  new  field  to  be  taken  up.  *  Expenditure  to  be  reduced 
in  Africa'  was  the  word,  when  I  proposed  the  new  region  beyond  us, 
and  there  is  nobody  willing  to  go  except  Mr.  Moffat  and  myself.  Six 
hundred  miles  additional  land-carriage,  mosquitoes  in  myriads,  sparrows 
by  the  million,  an  epidemic  frequently  fatal,  don't  look  well  in  a  picture. 
I  am  270  miles  from  Kuruman;  land-carriage  for  all  that  we  use  makes 
a  fearful  inroad  into  the  £100  of  salary,  and  then  600  miles  beyond  this 
makes  one  think  unutterable  things,  for  nobody  likes  to  call  for  more 
salary.  I  think  the  Indian  salary  ought  to  be  given  to  those  who  go 
into  the  tropics.  I  have  a  very  strong  desire  to  go  and  reduce  the  new 
language  to  writing,  but  I  cannot  perform  impossibilities.  I  don't  think 
it  quite  fair  for  the  Churches  to  expect  their  messenger  to  live,  as  if  he 
were  the  Prodigal  Son,  on  the  husks  that  the  swine  do  eat,  but  I  should 
be  ashamed  to  say  so  to  any  one  but  yourself." 

"  I  cannot  perform  impossibilities,"  said  Livingstone ;  but 
few  men  could  come  so  near  doing  it.  His  activity  of  mind 
and  body  at  this  outskirt  of  civilization  was  wonderful. 
A.  Jack-of-all-trades,  he  is  building  houses  and  schools, 
cultivating  gardens,  scheming  in  every  manner  of  way 
how  to  get  water,  which  in  the  remarkable  drought  of  the 
season  becomes  scarcer  and  scarcer ;  as  a  missionary  he  is 
holding  meetings  every  other  night,  preaching  on  Sundays, 
and  taking  such  other  opportunities  as  he  can  find  to  gain 
the  people  to  Christ ;  as  a  medical  man  he  is  dealing  with 
the  more  difficult  cases  of  disease,  those  which  baffle  the 
native  doctors ;  as  a  man  of  science  he  is  taking  observations, 
collecting  specimens,  thinking  out  geographical,  geological, 
meteorological,  and  other  problems  bearing  on  the  structure 
and  condition  of  the  continent;  as  a  missionary  statesman 
he  is  planning  how  the  actual  force  might  be  disposed  of 
to  most  advantage,  and  is  looking  round  in  this  direction 
and  in  that,  over  hundreds  of  miles,  for  openings  for  native 
agents;  and  to  promote  these  objects  he  is  writing  long 
letters  to  the  Directors,  to  the  Missionary  Chronicle,  to  the 


1^2  t>AVn>  LIVINGSTONE. 

BrUish  Banner,  to  private  friends,  to  any  one  likely  to  take 
an  interest  in  his  plans. 

But  this  does  not  exhaust  his  labors.  He  is  deeply  inter- 
ested in  philological  studies,  and  is  writing  on  the  Sichuana 
language : 

"  I  have  been  hatching  a  grammar  of  the  Sichuana  langiiage,"  he 
writes  to  Mr.  Watt.  "  It  is  different  in  structure  from  any  other  lan- 
guage, except  the  ancient  Egyptian.  Most  of  the  changes  are  effected 
by  means  of  prefixes  or  affixes,  the  radical  remaining  unchanged. 
Attempts  have  been  made  to  form  grammars,  but  all  have  gone  on  the 
principle  of  establishing  a  resemblance  between  Sichuana,  Latin,  and 
Greek;  mine  is  on  the  principle  of  analysing  the  language  without 
reference  to  any  others.  Grammatical  terms  are  only  used  when  I  can- 
not express  my  meaning  in  any  other  way.  The  analysis  renders  the 
whole  language  very  simple,  and  I  believe  the  principle  elicited  extends 
to  most  of  the  languages  between  this  and  Egypt.  I  wish  to  know 
whether  I  could  get  20  or  30  copies  printed  for  private  distribution  at  an 
expense  not  beyond  my  means.  It  would  be  a  mere  tract,  and  about  the 
size  of  this  letter  when  folded,  40  or  50  pages  perhapa^  Will  you  ascer. 
tain  the  cost,  and  tell  me  whether,  in  the  event  of  my  continuing  hot-  on 
the  subject  half  a  year  hence,  you  would  be  the  corrector  of  the  press? 
.  .  ,  Will  you  examine  catalogues  to  find  whether  there  is  any 
dictionary  of  ancient  Egyptian  within  my  means,  so  that  I  might  pur- 
chase and  compare  ?  I  should  not  grudge  two  or  three  pounds  for  it. 
Professor  Vater  has  written  on  it,  but  I  do  not  know  what  dictionary  he 
consulted.  One  Tattam  has  written  a  Coptic  grammar;  perhaps  that 
has  a  vocabulary,  and  might  serve  my  purpose.  I  see  Tattam  advertised 
by  John  Russell  Smith,  4  Old  Compton  Street,  Soho,  London, — 'Tattam 
(H.),  Lexicon  Egyptiaco-Latinum^  veterihus  linguae  Egyptiacae  monumentis ; 
thick  8vo,  bds.,  lOe.,  Oxf.,  1835.'     Will  you  purchase  the  above  for  me?'^ 

At  Mahotsa  and  Chonuane  the  Livingstones  had  spent 
but  a  little  time ;  Kolobeng  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
only  permanent  home  they  ever  had.  During  these  years 
several  of  their  children  were  born,  and  it  was  the  only 
considerable  period  of  their  lives  when  both  had  their 
children  about  them.  Looking  back  afterward  on  this 
period,  and  its  manifold  occupations,  whilst  detained  in 


*  This  gives  a  correct  idea  of  the  length  of  many  of  his  letters. 


THIRD  STATION.  \XZ 

Manyuema,  m  the  year  1870,  Dr.  Livingstone  wrote  the 
following  striking  words : 

"I  often  ponder  over  my  missionary  career  among  the  Bakwains  or 

Bakwaina,  and  though  conscious  of  many  imperfections,  not  a  single 
pang  of  regret  arises  in  the  view  of  my  conduct,  except  that  I  did  not 
feel  it  to  be  my  duty,  while  spending  all  my  energy  in  teaching  the 
heathen,  to  devote  a  special  portion  of  my  time  to  play  with  my  children. 
But  generally  I  was  so  much  exhausted  with  the  mental  and  manual 
labor  of  the  day,  that  in  the  evening  there  was  no  fun  left  in  me.  I  did 
not  play  with  my  little  ones  while  I  had  them,  and  they  soon  sprung  up 
in  my  absences,  and  left  me  conscious  that  I  had  none  to  play  with." 

The  heart  that  felt  this  one  regret  in  looking  back  to  this 
busy  time  must  have  been  true  indeed  to  the  instincts  of 
a,  parent  But  Livingstone's  case  was  no  exception  to  that 
mysterious  law  of  our  life  in  this  worlds  by  which,  in  so 
many  things,  we  learn  how  to  correct  our  errors  only  after 
the  opportunity  is  gone.  Of  all  the  crooks  in  his  lot,  that 
which  gave  him  so  short  an  opportunity  of  securing  the 
affections  and  moulding  the  character  of  his  children  seemi 
%o  have  been  the  hardest  to  bear.  His  long  detention  at 
Manyuema  appears,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  to  have  been 
spent  by  him  in  learning  more  completely  the  lesson  of 
submission  to  the  will  of  God;  and  the  hard  trial  of 
separation  from  his  family,  entailing  on  them  what  seemed 
irreparable  loss,  was  among  the  last  of  his  sorrows  over 
which  he  was  able  to  write  the  words  with  which  he  closes 
the  account  of  his  wife's  death  in  the  Zambesi  and  its  Trib' 
i^nes^r— "Fiat,  DoMiii^E,  volu^jtus  tuaI" 


114  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 


CHAPTER  VI. 

KOLOBENG  continued — lake  'ngami. 
A.D.  1849-1852. 

Kolobeng  failing  through  drought — Sebituane's  country  and  the  Lake  'Ngami 
—Livingstone  sets  out  with  Messrs.  Oswell  and  Murray — Rivers  Zouga  and 
Tamanak'le — Old  ideas  of  the  interior  revolutionized — Enthusiasm  of  Living- 
stone— Discovers  Lake  'Ngami — Obliged  to  return — Prize  from  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society — Second  expedition  to  the  lake,  with  wife  and  children — 
Children  attacked  by  fever — Again  obliged  to  return — Conviction  as  to 
healthier  spot  beyond — Idea  of  finding  passage  to  sea  either  west  or  east — 
Birth  and  death  of  a  child — Family  visits  Kuruman — Third  expedition,  again 
with  family — He  hopes  to  find  a  new  locality — Perils  of  the  journey — He 
reaches  Sebituane — The  chief's  illness  and  death — Distress  of  Livingstone — ■ 
Mr.  Oswell  and  he  go  on  the  Linyanti — Discovery  of  the  Upper  Zambesi — No 
locality  found  for  settlement — More  extended  journey  necessary — He  returns 
-^Birth  of  Oswald  Livingstone — Crisis  in  Livingstone's  life — His  guiding 
principles — New  plans — The  Makololo  begin  to  practice  slave-trade — New 
thoughts  about  commerce — Letters  to  Directors — The  Bakwains — Pros  and 
cons  of  his  new  plan — His  unabated  missionary  zeal — He  goes  with  hi* 
family  to  the  Cape — His  literary  activity. 

When  Sechele  turned  back  after  goin^  so  far  with  Living- 
stone eastward,  it  appeared  that  his  courage  had  failed 
him.  "  Will  you  go  with  me  northward  ?  "  Livingstone 
once  asked  him,  and  it  turned  out  that  he  was  desirous  to 
do  so.  He  wished  to  see  Sebituane,  a  great  chief  living  to 
the  north  of  Lake  'Ngami,  who  had  saved  his  life  in  hia 
infancy,  and  otherwise  done  him  much  service.  Sebituane 
was  a  man  of  great  ability,  who  had  brought  a  vast  number 
of  tribes  into  subjection,  and  now  ruled  over  a  very  exten- 
sive territory,  being  one  of  the  greatest  magnates  of  Africa. 
Livingstone,  too,  had  naturally  a  strong  desire  to  become 
acquainted  with  so  influential  a  man.    The  fact  of  his  living 


KOLOBENG—LAKE  'NGAML  115 

near  the  lake  revived  the  project  that  had  slumbered  for 
years  in  his  mind — to  be  the  first  of  the  missionaries  who 
should  look  on  its  waters.  At  Kolobeng,  too,  the  settlement 
was  in  such  straits,  owing  to  the  excessive  drought  which 
dried  up  the  very  river,  that  the  people  would  be  compelled 
to  leave  it  and  settle  elsewhere.  The  want  of  water,  and 
consequently  of  food,  in  the  gardens,  obliged  the  men  to  be 
absent  collecting  locusts,  so  that  there  was  hardly  any  one 
to  come  either  to  church  or  school.  Even  the  observance  of 
the  Sabbath  broke  down.  If  Kolobeng  should  have  to  be 
abandoned,  where  would  Livingstone  go  next  ?  It  was  cer- 
tainly worth  his  while  to  look  if  a  suitable  locality  could 
not  be  found  in  Sebituane's  territory.  He  had  resolved 
that  he  would  not  stay  with  the  Bakwains  always.  If  the 
new  region  were  not  suitable  for  himself,  he  might  find 
openings  for  native  teachers ;  at  all  events,  he  would  go 
northward  and  see.  Just  before  he  started,  messengers 
came  ^'^  him  from  Lechulatebe,  chief  of  the  people  of  the 
lake,  asking  him  to  visit  his  country,  and  giving  such  an 
account  of  the  quantity  of  ivory  that  the  cupidity  of  the 
Bakwain  guides  was  roused,  and  they  became  quite  egar  to 
be  there. 

On  1st  June,  1849,  Livingstone  accordingly  set  out  from 
Kolobeng.  Sechele  was  not  of  the  party,  but  two  English 
hunting  friends  accompanied  him,  Mr.  Oswell  and  Mr. 
Murray — Mr.  Oswell  generously  defraying  the  cost  of  the 
guides.  Sekomi,  a  neighboring  chief  who  secretly  wished 
the  expedition  to  fail,  lest  his  monopoly  of  the  ivory  should 
be  broken  up,  remonstrated  with  them  for  rushing  on  to 
certain  death — they  must  be  killed  by  the  sun  and  thirsty 
and  if  he  did  not  stop  them,  people  would  blame  him  for 
the  issue.  "  No  fear,"  said  Livingstone,  "  people  will  only 
blame  our  own  stupidity." 

The  great  Kalahari  desert,  of  which  Livingstone  has 
given  so  full  an  account,  lay  between  them  and  the  lake. 
They  passed  along  its  northeast  border,  and  had  traversed 


116  DAVID  LIVINQ8T0NK 

about  half  of  the  distance,  when  one  day  it  seemed  most 
unexpectedly  that  they  had  got  to  their  journey's  end. 
Mr.  Oswell  was  a  little  in  advance,  and  having  cleared  an 
intervening  thick  belt  of  trees,  beheld  in  the  soft  light  of 
the  setting  sun  what  seemed  a  magnificent  lake  twenty 
miles  in  circumference;  and  at  the  sight  threw  his  hat 
in  the  air,  and  raised  a  shout  which  made  the  Bakwains 
think  him  mad.  He  fancied  it  was  'Ngami,  and,  indeed, 
it  was  a  wonderful  deception,  caused  by  a  large  salt-pan 
gleaming  in  the  light  of  the  sun ;  in  fact,  the  old,  but  ever 
new  phenomenon  of  the  mirage.  The  real  'Ngami  was 
yet  300  miles  farther  on. 

Livingstone  has  given  ample  details  of  his  progress  in 
the  Missionary  Travels,  dwelling  especially  on  his  joy  when 
he  reached  the  beautiful  river  Zouga,  whose  waters  flowed 
from  'Ngami.  Providence  frustrated  an  attempt  to  rouse 
ill-feeling  against  him  on  the  part  of  two  men  who  had 
been  sent  by  Sekomi,  apparently  to  help  him,  but  who  now 
went  before  him  and  circulated  a  report  that  the  object  of 
the  travelers  was  to  plunder  all  the  tribes  living  on  the 
river  and  the  lake.  Half-way  up,  the  principal  man  was 
attacked  by  fever,  and  died;  the  natives  thought  it  a 
judgment,  and  seeing  through  Sekomi's  reason  for  wishing 
the  expedition  not  to  succeed,  they  by  and  by  became  quite 
friendly,  under  Livingstone's  fair  and  kind  treatment. 

A  matter  of  great  significance  in  his  future  history 
occurred  at  the  junction  of  the  rivers  Tamanak'le  and 
Zouga : 

"  I  inquired,"  he  says,  "  whence  the  Tamanak'le  came.  *  Oh  !  from 
a  country  full  of  rivers, — so  many,  no  one  can  tell  their  number,  and 
full  of  large  trees.'  This  was  the  first  confirmation  of  statements  I 
had  heard  from  the  Bakwains  who  had  been  with  Sebituane,  that  the 
country  beyond  was  not  the  Marge  sandy  plateau'  of  the  philosophers. 
The  prospect  of  a  highway,  capable  of  being  traversed  by  boats  to  an 
entirely  unexplored  and  very  populous  region,  grew  from  that  time  for* 
ward  stronger  and  stronger  in  my  mind;  so  much  so,  that  when  we 
actually  came  to  the  lake,  this  idea  occupied  such  a  large   portiou  of 


KOLOBENQ—LAKE  'NQAML  117 

my  mental  vision,  that  the  actual  discovery  seemed  of  but  little  im- 
portance. I  find  I  wrote,  when  the  emotions  caused  by  the  magnificent 
prospects  of  the  new  country  were  first  awakened  in  my  breast,  that 
they  *  might  subject  me  to  the  charge  of  enthusiasm,  a  charge  which  I 
deserved,  as  nothing  good  or  great  had  ever  been  accomplished  in  the 
world  without  it.'  "^ 

Twelve  days  after,  the  travelers  came  to  the  northeast 
end  of  Lake  'Ngami,  and  it  was  on  1st  August,  1849,  that 
this  fine  sheet  of  water  was  beheld  for  the  first  time  by 
Europeans.  It  was  of  such  magnitude  that  they  could  not 
see  the  farther  shore,  and  they  could  only  guess  its  size 
from  the  reports  of  the  natives  that  it  took  three  days  to 
go  round  it. 

Lechulatebe,  the  chief  who  had  sent  him  the  invitation, 
was  quite  a  young  man,  and  his  reception  by  no  means 
corresponded  to  what  the  invitation  implied.  He  had  no 
idea  of  Livingstone  going  on  to  Sebituane,  who  lived  two 
hundred  miles  farther  north,  and  perhaps  supplying  him 
with  fire-arms  which  would  make  him  a  more  dangerous 
neighbor.  He  therefore  refused  Livingstone  guides  to 
Sebituane,  and  sent  men  to  prevent  him  from  crossing  the 
river.  Livingstone  was  not  to  be  baulked,  and  worked 
many  hours  in  the  river  trying  to  make  a  raft  out  of  some 
rotten  wood, — ^at  the  imminent  risk  of  his  life,  as  he  after- 
ward found,  for  the  Zouga  abounds  with  alligators.  The 
season  was  now  far  advanced,  and  as  Mr.  Oswell  volun- 
teered to  go  down  to  the  Cape  and  bring  up  a  boat  next 
year,  the  expedition  was  abandoned  for  the  time. 

Returning  home  by  the  Zouga,  they  had  better  oppor- 
tunity to  mark  the  extraordinary  richness  of  the  country, 
and  the  abundance  and  luxuriance  of  its  products,  both 
animal  and  vegetable.  Elephants  existed  in  crowds,  and 
ivory  was  so  abundant  that  a  trader  was  purchasing  it  at 
the  rate  of  ten  tusks  for  a  musket  worth  fifteen  shillinga 


*  Missionary  Travels^  p.  65, 


118  DA  VID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Two  years  later,  after  effect  had  been  given  to  Livingstone's 
discovery,  the  price  had  risen  very  greatly. 

Writing  to  his  friend  Watt,  he  dwells  with  delight  on 
the  river  Zouga : 

"It  18  a  glorious  river;  you  never  saw  anything  bo  grand.  The  banks 
are  extremely  beautiful,  lined  with  gigantic  trees,  many  quite  new.  One 
bore  a  fruit  a  foot  in  length  and  three  inches  in  diameter.  Another 
measured  seventy  feet  in  circumference.  Apart  from  the  branches  it 
looked  like  a  mass  of  granite ;  and  then  the  Bakoba  in  their  canoes- 
did  I  not  enjoy  sailing  in  them  ?  Remember  how  long  I  have  been  in  a 
parched-up  land,  and  answer.  The  Bakoba  are  a  fine  frank  race  of 
men,  and  seem  to  understand  the  message  better  than  any  people  to 
whom  I  have  spoken  on  Divine  subjects  for  the  first  time.  What  think 
you  of  a  navigable  highway  into  a  large  section  of  the  interior?  yet  that 
the  Tamanak'le  is.  .  .  .  Who  will  go  into  that  goodly  land ?  Who? 
Ib  it  not  the  Kiger  of  this  part  of  Africa?  ...  I  greatly  enjoyed 
sailing  in  their  canoes,  rude  enough  things,  hollowed  out  of  the  trunks 
of  single  trees,  and  visiting  the  villages  along  the  Zouga.  I  felt  but 
little  when  I  looked  on  the  lake ;  but  the  Zouga  and  Tamanak'le 
awakened  emotions  not  to  be  described,  I  hope  to  go  up  the  latter  next 
year." 

The  discovery  of  the  lake  and  the  river  was  communi- 
cated to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  in  extracts  from 
Livingstone's  letters  to  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
and  to  his  friend  and  former  fellow-traveler.  Captain  Steele. 
In  1849  the  Society  voted  him  a  sum  of  twenty-five  guineas 
"for  his  successful  journey,  in  company  with  Messrs.  Os- 
well  and  Murray,  across  the  South  African  desert,  for  the 
discovery  of  an  interesting  country,  a  fine  river,  and  an 
extensive  inland  lake."  In  addressing  Dr.  Tidman  and 
Alderman  Challis,  who  represented  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  the  President  (the  late  Captain,  afterward  Rear- 
Admiral,  W.  Smyth,  R.N.,  who  distinguished  himself  in 
early  life  by  his  journey  across  the  Andes  to  Lima,  and 
thence  to  the  Atlantic)  adverted  to  the  value  of  the  dis- 
coveries in  themselves,  and  in  the  influence  they  would 
have  on  the  regions  beyond.  He  spoke  also  of  the  help 
which  Livingstone  had  derived  as  an  explorer  from  his 


KOLOBENQ—LAKE  'NGAML  119 

Influence  as  a  missionary.  The  journey  he  had  performed 
successfully  had  hitherto  baffled  the  best-furnished  trav- 
elers. In  1834,  an  expedition  under  Dr.  Andrew  Smith, 
the  largest  and  best-appointed  that  ever  left  Cape  Town, 
had  gone  as  far  as  23°  south  latitude ;  but  that  proved  to 
be  the  utmost  distance  they  could  reach,  and  they  were 
compelled  to  return.  Captain  Sir  James  E.  Alexander, 
the  only  scientific  traveler  subsequently  sent  out  from 
England  by  the  Geographical  Society,  in  despair  of  the 
lake,  and  of  discovery  by  the  oft-tried  eastern  route,  ex- 
plored the  neighborhood  of  the  western  coast  instead.* 
The  President  frankly  ascribed  Livingstone's  success  to 
the  influence  he  had  acquired  as  a  missionary  among  the 
natives,  and  Livingstone  thoroughly  believed  this.  "  The 
lake,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Watt,  "  belongs  to  missionary 
enterprise."  "Only  last  year,"  he  subsequently  wrote  to 
the  Geographical  Society,  "  a  party  of  engineers,  in  about 
thirty  wagons,  made  many  and  persevering  efforts  to  cross 
the  desert  at  different  points,  but  though  inured  to  the 
climate,  and  stimulated  by  the  prospect  of  gain  from  the 
ivory  they  expected  to  procure,  they  were  compelled,  for 
want  of  water,  to  give  up  the  undertaking."  The  year 
after  Livingstone's  first  visit,  Mr.  Francis  Galton  tried,  but 
failed,  to  reach  the  lake,  though  he  was  so  successful  in 
other  directions  as  to  obtain  the  Society's  gold  medal  in 
1852. 

Livingstone  was  evidently  gratified  at  the  honor  paid 
him,  and  the  reception  of  the  twenty-five  guineas  from  the 
Queen.  But  the  gift  had  also  a  comical  side.  It  carried 
him  back  to  the  days  of  his  Radical  youth,  when  he  and 
his  friends  used  to  criticise  pretty  sharply  the  destination 
of  the  nation's  money.  "  The  Royal  Geographical  Society,'" 
he  writes  to  his  parents  (4th  December,  1850),  "have 
awarded  twenty-five  guineas  for  the  discovery  of  the  lake. 

>  Joiimal  of  the  Royal  G«c^aphical  Sodety,  vol.  xx.  p.  jocviii. 


120  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

It  is  from  the  Queen.  You  must  be  very  loyal,  all  of  yoa 
Next  time  she  comes  your  way,  shout  till  you  are  hoarse. 
Oh,  you  Radicals,  don't  be  thinking  it  came  out  of  your 
pockets  I    Long  live  Victoria  I" ' 

Defeated  in  his  endeavor  to  reach  Sebituane  in  1849, 
Livingstone,  the  following  season,  put  in  practice  his 
favorite  maxim,  "  Try  again."  He  left  Kolobeng  in  April, 
1850,  and  this  time  he  was  accompanied  by  Sechele,  Me- 
balwe,  twenty  Bakwains,  Mrs.  Livingstone,  and  their  whole 
troop  of  infantry,  which  now  amounted  to  three.  Travel- 
ing in  the  charming  climate  of  South  Africa  in  the  roomy 
wagon,  at  the  pace  of  two  miles  and  a  half  an  hour,  is  not 
like  traveling  at  home ;  but  it  was  a  proof  of  Livingstone's 
great  unwillingness  to  be  separated  from  his  family,  that 
he  took  them  with  him,  notwithstanding  the  risk  of  mos- 
quitoes, fever,  and  want  of  water.  The  people  of  Kolobeng 
were  so  engrossed  at  the  time  with  their  employments, 
that  till  harvest  was  over,  little  missionary  work  could  be 
done. 

The  journey  was  difficult,  and  on  the  northern  branch 
of  the  Zouga  many  trees  had  to  be  cut  down  to  allow  the 
wagons  to  pass.  The  presence  of  a  formidable  enemy  was 
reported  on  the  banks  of  the  Tamanak'le, — the  tsetsefly, 
whose  bite  is  so  fatal  to  oxen.  To  avoid  it,  another  route 
had  to  be  chosen.  When  they  got  near  the  lake,  it  was 
found  that  fever  had  recently  attacked  a  party  of  English"* 
men,  one  of  whom  had  died,  while  the  rest  recovered  under 
the  care  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone.  Livingstone  took 
his  family  to  have  a  peep  at  the  lake;  "the  children,"  he 
wrote,  "  took  to  playing  in  it  as  ducklings  do.  Paidling  in 
it  was  great  fun."    Great  fun  to  them,  who  had  seen  little 

*  In  a  more  serious  vein  he  wrote  in  a  previous  letter:  "  I  wonder  you  do 
not  gc  to  see  the  Queen.  I  was  as  disloyal  as  others  when  in  England,  for 
though  I  might  have  seen  her  in  London,  I  never  went.  Do  you  ever  pray  for 
her  ?"  This  letter  is  dated  6th  February,  1850,  and  must  have  been  written 
before  he  heard  of  the  prize. 


KOLOBENQ—LAKE  'NGAML  121 

enough  water  for  a  while ;  and  in  a  quiet  way,  great  fun  to 
their  father  too, — his  own  children  "  paidling"  in  his  own 
lake!  He  was  beginning  to  find  that  in  a  missionary 
point  of  view,  the  presence  of  his  wife  and  children  was  a 
considerable  advantage ;  it  inspired  the  natives  with  con- 
fidence, and  promoted  tender  feelings  and  kind  relations. 
The  chief,  Lechulatebe,  was  at  last  propitiated  at  a  con- 
siderable sacrifice,  having  taken  a  fancy  to  a  valuable  rifle 
of  Livingstone's,  the  gift  of  a  friend,  which  could  not  be 
replaced.  The  chief  vowed  that  if  he  got  it  he  would  give 
Livingstone  everything  he  wished,  and  protect  and  feed 
his  wife  and  children  into  the  bargain,  while  he  went  on 
to  Sebituane.  Livingstone  at  once  handed  him  the  gun. 
"It  is  of  great  consequence,"  he  said,  "to  gain  the  con- 
fidence of  these  fellows  at  the  beginning."  It  was  his 
intention  that  Mrs.  Livingstone  and  the  children  should 
remain  at  Lechulatebe's  until  he  should  have  returned. 
But  the  scheme  was  upset  by  an  outburst  of  fever.  Among 
others,  two  of  the  children  were  attacked.  There  was  no 
help  but  to  go  home.  The  gun  was  left  behind  in  the 
hope  that  ere  long  Livingstone  would  get  back  to  claim 
the  fulfillment  of  the  chiefs  promise.  It  was  plain  that 
the  neighborhood  of  the  lake  was  not  habitable  by  Euro- 
peans. Hence  a  fresh  confirmation  of  his  views  as  to  the 
need  of  native  agency,  if  intertropical  Africa  was  ever  to 
be  Christianized. 

But  Livingstone  was  convinced  that  there  must  be  a 
healthier  spot  to  the  north.  Writing  to  Mr.  Watt  (18th 
August,  1850),  he  not  only  expresses  this  conviction,  but 
gives  the  ground  on  which  it  rested.  The  extract  which 
we  subjoin  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  sagacity  that  from 
apparently  little  things  drew  great  conclusions ;  but  more 
than  that,  it  indicates  the  birth  of  the  great  idea  that 
dominated  the  next  period  of  Livingstone's  life — the  desire 
and  determination  to  find  a  passage  to  the  sea,  either  on 
the  east  or  the  west  coast : 
11 


1S2  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

^  A  more  salubrious  climate  must  exist  farther  up  to  the  north,  and 
that  the  country  is  higher,  seems  evident  from  the  fact  mentioned  by 
the  Bakoba,  that  the  water  of  the  Teoge,  the  river  that  falls  into  the 
'Ngami  at  the  northwest  point  of  it,  flows  with  great  rapidity.  Canoes 
ascending,  punt  all  the  way,  and  the  men  must  hold  on  by  reeds  in 
order  to  prevent  their  being  carried  down  by  the  current.  Large  trees, 
spring-bucks  and  other  antelopes  are  sometimes  brought  down  by  it 
Do  you  wonder  at  my  pressing  on  in  the  way  we  have  done?  The 
Bechuana  mission  has  been  carried  on  in  a  cul-de-sac.  I  tried  to  break 
through  by  going  among  the  Eastern  tribes,  but  the  Boers  shut  up  that 
field.  A  French  missionary,  Mr.  Fredoux,  of  Motito,  tried  to  follow 
on  my  trail  to  the  Bamangwato,  but  was  turned  back  by  a  party  of 
armed  Boers.  When  we  burst  through  the  barrier  on  the  north,  it 
appeared  very  plain  that  no  mission  could  be  successful  there,  unless 
we  could  get  a  well-watered  country  leaving  a  passage  to  the  sea  on 
either  the  east  or  west  coast.  This  project  I  am  almost  afraid  to  meet, 
but  nothing  else  will  do.  I  intend  (d.  v.)  to  go  in  next  year  and  remain 
a  twelvemonth.  My  wife,  poor  soul — I  pity  her  I — proposed  to  let  me 
go  for  that  time  while  she  remained  at  Kolobeng.  You  will  pray  for 
VLB  both  during  that  period." 

A  week  later  (August  24, 1850)  he  writes  to  the  Directors 
that  no  convenient  access  to  the  region  can  be  obtained 
from  the  south,  the  lake  being  870  miles  from  Kuruman : 

"We  must  have  a  passage  to  the  sea  on  either  the  eastern  or  western 
eoast.  I  have  hitherto  been  afraid  to  broach  the  subject  on  which  my 
perhaps  dreamy  imagination  dwells.  You  at  home  are  accustomed  to 
look  on  a  project  as  half  finished  when  you  have  received  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  ladies.  My  better  half  has  promised  me  a  twelvemonth's 
leave  of  absence  for  mine.  Without  promising  anything,  I  mean  to 
follow  a  useful  motto  in  many  circumstances,  and  Try  a^ain." 

On  returning  to  Kolobeng,  Mrs.  Livingstone  was  de- 
livered of  a  daughter — her  fourth  child.  An  epidemic  was 
raging  at  the  time,  and  the  child  was  seized  and  cut  off,  at 
the  age  of  six  weeks.  The  loss,  or  rather  the  removal,  of 
the  child  affected  Livingstone  greatly.  "  It  was  the  first 
death  in  our  family,"  he  says  in  his  Journal,  "  but  was  just 
as  likely  to  have  happened  had  we  remained  at  home,  and 
we  have  now  one  of  our  number  in  heaven." 


KOL  OBENG—LAKE  'N  OAML  123 

To  his  parents  he  writes  (4th  December,  1850) : 

"Our  last  child,  a  sweet  little  girl  with  blue  eyes,  was  taken  from  ua 
♦o  join  the  company  of  the  redeemed,  through  the  merits  of  Him  of 
whom  she  never  heard.  It  is  wonderful  how  soon  the  afFectiona  twine 
round  a  little  stranger.  We  felt  her  loss  keenly.  She  was  attacked  by 
the  prevailing  sickness,  which  attacked  many  native  children,  and  bore 
up  under  it  for  a  fortnight.  We  could  not  apply  remedies  to  one  so 
young,  except  the  simplest.  She  uttered  a  piercing  cry  previous  to 
expiring,  and  then  went  away  to  see  the  King  in  his  beauty,  and  the 
land — the  glorious  land,  and  its  inhabitants.  Hers  is  the  first  grave  in 
all  that  country  marked  as  the  resting-place  of  one  of  whom  it  is 
believed  and  confessed  that  she  shall  live  again." 

Mrs.  Livingstone  had  an  attack  of  serious  illness,  acoom- 
panied  by  paralysis  of  the  right  side  of  the  face,  and  rest 
being  essential  for  her,  the  family  went,  for  a  time,  to 
Kuruman.  Dr.  Livingstone  had  a  strong  desire  to  go  to 
the  Cape  for  the  excision  of  his  uvula,  which  had  long 
been  troublesome.  But,  with  characteristic  self-denial,  he 
put  his  own  case  out  of  view,  staying  with  his  wife, 
that  she  might  have  the  rest  and  attention  she  needed. 
He  tried  to  persuade  his  father  in-law  to  perform  the 
operation,  and,  under  his  direction,  Dr.  Moffat  went  so  far 
as  to  make  a  pair  of  scissors  for  the  purpose;  but  his 
courage,  so  well  tried  in  other  fields,  was  not  equal  to  the 
performance  of  such  a  surgical  operation. 

Some  glimpses  of  Livingstone's  musings  at  this  time, 
showing,  among  other  things,  how  much  more  he  thought 
of  his  spiritual  than  his  Highland  ancestry,  occur  in  a 
letter  to  his  parents,  written  immediately  after  his  return 
from  his  second  visit  to  the  lake  (28th  July,  1850).  If  they 
should  carry  out  their  project  of  emigration  to  America, 
they  would  have  an  interesting  family  gathering; 

"  One,  however,  will  be  '  over  the  hills  and  far  away'  from  your  happy 
meeting.  The  meeting  which  we  hope  will  take  place  in  Heaven  will 
be  unlike  a  happy  one,  in  so  far  as  earthly  relationships  are  concerned. 
One  will  be  so  much  taken  up  in  looking  at  Jesus,  I  don't  know  when 
we  shall  be  disposed  to  sit  down  and  talk  about  the  days  of  lang  syne. 


124  DAVID  LIVINGSTONR 

And  then  there  will  be  so  raany  notables  whom  we  should  like  to  notic« 
and  shake  hands  with — Luke,  for  instance,  the  beloved  physician,  and 
Jeremiah,  and  old  Job,  and  Noah,  and  Enoch,  that  if  you  are  wise,  you 
will  make  the  most  of  your  union  while  you  are  together,  and  not  fail 
to  write  me  fully,  while  you  have  the  opportunity  here.     .     .     . 

"Charles  thinks  we  are  not  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans.  I  don't 
know  what  you  are,  but  I  am.  And  if  you  dispute  it,  I  shall  stick  to 
the  answer  of  a  poor  little  boy  before  a  magistrate.  M. — 'Who  were 
your  parents?'  Boy  (rubbing  his  eyes  with  his  jacket-sleeve) — "  Nevei 
had  none,  sir.'  Dr.  Wardlaw  says  that  the  Scotch  Independents  are  tht 
descendants  of  the  Puritans,  and  I  suppose  the  pedigree  is  througt 
Rowland  Hill  and  Whitefield.  But  I  was  a  member  of  the  very  churcl- 
in  which  John  Howe,  the  chaplain  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  preached,  anor 
exercised  the  pastorate.  I  was  ordained,  too,  by  English  Independenta, 
Moreover,  I  am  a  Doctor  too.  Agnes  and  Janet,  get  up  this  moment 
and  curtsy  to  his  Reverence  I  John  and  Charles,  remember  the  dream 
of  the  sheaves  1  /  descended  from  kilts  and  Donald  Dhus?  Na,  na,  I 
won't  believe  it. 

"We  have  a  difficult,  difficult  field  to  cultivate  here.  All  I  can  say 
is,  that  I  think  knowledge  is  increasing.  But  for  the  belief  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  works,  and  will  work  for  us,  I  should  give  up  in  despair. 
Remember  us  in  your  prayers,  that  we  grow  not  weary  in  well-doing. 
It  is  hard  to  work  for  years  with  pure  motives,  and  all  the  time  be 
looked  on  by  most  of  those  to  whom  our  lives  are  devoted,  as  having 
some  sinister  object  in  view.  Disinterested  labor — benevolence — is  so 
out  of  their  line  of  thought,  that  many  look  upon  us  as  having  some 
ulterior  object  in  view.  But  He  who  died  for  us,  and  whom  we  ought 
to  copy,  did  more  for  us  than  we  can  do  for  any  one  else.  He  endured 
the  contradiction  of  sinners.  May  we  have  grace  to  follow  in  his 
steps  1' 

The  third,  and  at  last  successful,  effort  to  reach  Sebituane 
was  made  in  April,  1851.  Livingstone  was  again  accom- 
panied by  his  family,  and  by  Mr.  Oswell.  He  left  Kolobeng 
with  the  intention  not  to  return,  at  least  not  immediately^ 
but  to  settle  with  his  family  in  such  a  spot  as  might  be 
found  advantageous,  in  the  hilly  region,  of  whose  existence 
he  was  assured.  They  found  the  desert  drier  than  ever, 
no  rain  having  fallen  throughout  an  immense  extent  of 
territory.  To  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Oswell  the  party  was 
indebted  for  most  valuable  assistance  in  procuring  water, 
wells  having  been  dug  or  cleared  by  his  people  beforehand 


KOLOBENQ—LAKE  'NGAML  125 

at  various  places,  and  at  one  place  at  the  hazard  of  Mr. 
Oswell's  life,  under  an  attack  from  an  infuriated  lioness. 
In  his  private  Journal,  and  in  his  letters  to  home,  Living- 
stone again  and  again  acknowledges  with  deepest  gratitude 
the  numberless  acts  of  kindness  done  by  Mr.  Oswell  to 
him  and  his  family,  and  often  adds  the  prayer  that  God 
would  reward  him,  and  of  His  grace  give  him  the  highest 
of  all  blessings.  "  Though  I  cannot  repay,  I  may  record 
with  gratitude  his  kindness,  so  that,  if  spared  to  look  upon 
these,  my  private  memoranda,  in  future  years,  proper  emo- 
tions may  ascend  to  Him  who  inclined  his  heart  to  show 
so  much  friendship." 

The  party  followed  the  old  route,  around  the  bed  of  the 
Zouga,  then  crossed  a  piece  of  the  driest  desert  they  had 
ever  seen,  with  not  an  insect  or  a  bird  to  break  the  still- 
ness. On  the  third  day  a  bird  chirped  in  a  bush,  when 
the  dog  began  to  bark !  Shobo,  their  guide,  a  Bushman, 
lost  his  way,  and  for  four  days  they  were  absolutely  with- 
out water.  In  his  Missionary  Travels,  Livingstone  records 
quietly,  as  was  his  wont,  his  terrible  anxiety  about  his 
children  • 

"  The  supply  of  water  m  the  wagons  had  been  wasted  by  one  of  our 
eervants,  and  by  the  afternoon  only  a  small  portion  remained  for  the 
children.  This  was  a  bitterly  anxious  night  j  and  next  morning,  the 
less  there  was  of  water,  the  more  thirsty  the  little  rogues  became.  The 
idea  of  their  perishing  before  our  eyes  was  terrible;  it  would  almost 
have  been  a  relief  to  me  to  have  been  reproached  with  being  the  entire 
cause  of  the  catastrophe,  but  not  one  syllable  of  upbraiding  was  uttered 
by  their  mother,  though  the  tearful  eye  told  the  agony  within.  In  the 
afternoon  of  the  fifth  day,  to  our  inexpressible  relief,  some  of  the  men 
returned  with  a  supply  of  that  fluid  of  which  we  had  never  before  felt 
the  true  value." 

"No  one,"  he  remarks  in  his  Journal,  "knows  the  value  of  water  till 
he  is  deprived  of  it.  We  never  need  any  spirits  to  qualify  it,  or  pre- 
vent an  immense  draught  of  it  from  doing  us  harm.  I  have  drunk  water 
Bwarming  with  insects,  thick  with  mud,  putrid  from  other  mixtures, 
and  no  stinted  draughts  of  it  either,  yet  never  felt  any  inconvenience 
from  it" 


126  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

"  My  opinion  is,"  he  said  on  another  occasion,  '^  that  the  most  severe 
labors  and  privations  may  be  undergone  without  alcoholic  stimulus, 
because  those  who  have  endured  the  most  had  nothing  else  but  water, 
and  not  always  enough  of  that." 

One  of  the  great  charms  of  Livingstone's  character,  and 
one  of  the  secrets  of  his  power — his  personal  interest  in 
each  individual,  however  humble — appeared  in  connection 
with  Shobo,  the  Bushman  guide,  who  misled  them  and 
took  the  blunder  so  coolly.  "  What  a  wonderful  people," 
he  says  in  his  Journal,  "  the  Bushmen  are !  always  merry 
and  laughing,  and  never  telling  lies  wantonly  like  the 
Bechuana.  They  have  more  of  the  appearance  of  worship 
than  any  of  the  Bechuana.  When  will  these  dwellers  in 
the  wilderness  bow  down  before  their  Lord?  No  man 
seems  to  care  for  the  Bushman's  soul.  I  often  wished  I 
knew  their  language,  but  never  more  than  when  we  trav- 
eled with  our  Bushman  guide,  Shobo." 

Livingstone  had  given  a  fair  trial  to  the  experiment  of 
traveling  along  with  his  family.  In  one  of  his  letters  at 
this  time  he  speaks  of  the  extraordinary  pain  caused  by 
the  mosquitoes  of  those  parts,  and  of  his  children  being  so 
covered  with  their  bites,  that  not  a  square  inch  of  whole 
skin  was  to  be  found  on  their  bodies.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
he  gave  up  the  idea  of  carrying  them  with  him  in  the 
more  extended  journey  he  was  now  contemplating.  He 
could  not  leave  them  at  Kolobeng,  exposed  to  the  raids  of 
the  Boers ;  to  Kuruman  there  were  also  invincible  objec- 
tions ;  the  only  possible  plan  was  to  send  them  to  England, 
though  he  hoped  that  when  he  got  settled  in  some  suitable 
part  of  Sebituane's  dominions,  with  a  free  road  to  the  sea, 
they  would  return  to  him,  and  help  him  to  bring  the 
people  to  Christ. 

In  the  Mis&ioncvry  Travels  Livingstone  has  given  a  full 
account  of  Sebituane,  chief  of  the  Makololo,  "  unquestion- 
ably the  greatest  man  in  all  that  country" — his  remarkable 
career,  his  wonderful  warlike  exploiUi  (for  which  he  eoul^ 


KOLOBENO-LAKE  'NOAML  127 

always  bring  forward  justifying  reasons),  his  interesting 
and  attractive  character,  and  wide  and  powerful  influence. 
In  one  thing  Sebituane  was  very  like  Livingstone  himself; 
he  had  the  art  of  gaining  the  affections  both  of  his  own 
people  and  of  strangers.  When  a  party  of  poor  men  came 
to  his  town  to  sell  hoes  or  skins,  he  would  sit  down  among 
them,  talk  freely  and  pleasantly  to  them,  and  probably 
cause  some  lordly  dish  to  be  brought,  and  give  them  a 
feast  on  it,  perhaps  the  first  they  had  ever  shared.  De- 
lighted beyond  measure  with  his  affabilit}^  and  liberality, 
they  felt  their  hearts  warm  toward  him ;  and  as  he  never 
allowed  a  party  of  strangers  to  go  away  without  giving 
every  one  of  them — servants  and  all — a  present,  his  praises 
were  sounded  far  and  wide.  "He  has  a  heart!  he  is  wise!'* 
were  the  usual  expressions  Livingstone  heard  before  be 
saw  him. 

Sebituane  received  Livingstone  with  great  kindness,  for 
it  had  been  one  of  the  dreams  of  his  life  to  have  intercourse 
with  the  white  man.  He  placed  full  confidence  in  him 
from  the  beginning,  and  was  ready  to  give  him  everything 
he  might  need.  On  the  first  Sunday  when  the  usual 
service  was  held  he  was  present,  and  Livingstone  was  very 
thankful  that  he  was  there,  for  it  turned  out  to  be  the  only 
proclamation  of  the  gospel  he  ever  heard.  For  just  after 
realizing  what  he  had  so  long  and  ardently  desired,  he  was 
seized  with  severe  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  and  died  after 
a  fortnight's  illness.  Livingstone,  being  a  stranger,  feared 
to  prescribe,  lest,  in  the  event  of  his  death,  he  should  be 
accused  of  having  caused  it.  On  visiting  him,  and  seeing 
that  he  was  dying,  he  spoke  a  few  words  respecting  hope 
after  death.  But  being  checked  by  the  attendants  for  in- 
troducing the  subject,  he  could  only  commend  his  soul  to 
God.  The  last  words  of  Sebituane  were  words  of  kind- 
ness to  Livingstone's  son :  "  Take  him  to  Maunku  (one  of 
his  wives)  and  tell  her  to  give  him  some  milk.'*  Living- 
etone  was  deeply  affected  by  his  death,    A  deeper  sense  of 


128  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

brotherhood,  a  warmer  glow  of  affection  had  been  kindled 
in  his  heart  toward  Sebituane  than  had  seemed  possible. 
With  his  very  tender  conscience  and  deep  sense  of  spiritual 
realities,  Livingstone  was  afraid,  as  in  the  case  of  Sehamy 
eight  years  before,  that  he  had  not  spoken  to  him  so 
pointedly  as  he  might  have  done.  It  is  awfully  affecting 
to  follow  him  into  the  unseen  world,  of  which  he  had 
heard  for  the  first  time  just  before  he  was  called  away.  In 
his  Journal,  Livingstone  gives  way  to  his  feelings  as  he 
very  seldom  allowed  himself  to  do.  His  words  bring  to 
mind  David's  lament  for  Jonathan  or  for  Absalom,  although 
he  had  known  Sebituane  less  than  a  month,  and  he  was 
one  of  the  race  whom  many  Boers  and  slave-stealers  re- 
garded as  having  no  souls : 

"  Poor  Sebituane,  my  heart  bleeds  for  thee  ;  and  what  would  I  not  do 
for  thee  now  ?  I  will  weep  for  thee  till  the  day  of  my  death.  Little 
didst  thou  think  when,  in  the  visit  of  the  white  man,  thou  sawest  the 
long  cherished  desires  of  years  accomplished,  that  the  sentence  of  death 
had  gone  forth !  Thou  thoughtest  that  thou  shouldest  procure  a 
weapon  from  the  white  man  which  would  be  a  shield  from  the  attacki 
of  the  fierce  Matebele  ;  but  a  more  deadly  dart  than  theirs  was  aimed 
at  thee ;  and  though  thou  couldest  well  ward  off  a  dart — none  evel 
better — thou  didst  not  see  that  of  the  king  of  terrors.  I  will  weep  for 
thee,  my  brother,  and  I  will  cast  forth  my  sorrows  in  despair  for  thy 
condition  !  But  I  know  that  thou  wilt  receive  no  injustice  whither  thou 
art  gone ;  '  Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?  '  I  leave  thee 
to  Him.  Alas  1  alas  !  Sebituane.  I  might  have  said  more  to  him. 
God  forgive  me.  Free  me  from  blood-guiltiness.  If  I  had  said  more 
of  death  I  might  have  been  suspected  as  having  foreseen  the  event,  and 
as  guilty  of  bewitching  him.  I  might  have  recommended  Jesus  and 
his  great  atonement  more.  It  is,  however,  very  difficult  to  break 
through  the  thick  crust  of  ignorance  which  envelops  their  minds." 

The  death  of  Sebituane  was  a  great  blow  in  another 
sense.  The  region  over  which  his  influence  extended  was 
immense,  and  he  had  promised  vo  show  it  to  Livingstone 
and  to  select  a  suitable  locality  for  his  residence.  This 
heathen  chief  would  have  given  to  Christ's  servant  what 
the  Boers  refused  him  I     Livingstone  would  have  b^d  his 


KOLOBENG--LAKE  'NGAML  129 

wish — an  entirely  new  countr}''  to  work  upon,  where  the 
name  of  Christ  had  never  yet  been  spoken.  So  at  least  he 
thought.  Sebituane's  successor  in  the  chiefdom  was  his 
daughter,  Ma-mochisane.  From  her  he  received  liberty  to 
visit  any  part  of  the  country  he  chose.  While  waiting  for 
a  reply  (she  was  residing  at  a  distance),  he  one  day  fell 
into  a  great  danger  from  an  elephant  which  had  come  on 
him  unexpectedly.  "  We  were  startled  by  his  coming  a 
little  way  in  the  direction  in  which  we  were  standing,  but 
he  did  not  give  us  chase.  I  have  had  many  escapes.  We 
seem  immortal  till  our  work  is  done." 

Mr.  Oswell  and  he  then  proceeded  in  a  northeasterly 
direction,  passing  through  the  town  of  Linyanti,  and  on 
the  3d  of  August  they  came  on  the  beautiful  river  at 
Sesheke ; 

"  We  thanked  God  for  permitting  us  to  see  this  glorious  river.  All 
we  said  to  each  other  was  '  How  glorious  1  how  magnificent  1  how  beau* 
tiful  I'  ...  In  crossing,  the  waves  lifted  up  the  canoe  and  made  it 
roll  beautifully.  The  scenery  of  the  Firths  of  Forth  and  Clyde  was 
brought  vividly  to  my  view,  and  had  I  been  fond  of  indulging  in  sen- 
timental effusions,  my  lachrymal  apparatus  seemed  fully  charged.  But 
then  the  old  man  who  was  conducting  us  across  might  have  said,  'What 
on  earth  are  you  blubbering  for?  Afraid  of  these  crocodiles,  eh?'  The 
little  sentimentality  which  exceeded  was  forced  to  take  its  course  down 
the  inside  of  the  nose.  We  have  other  work  in  this  world  than  indulging 
in  sentimentality  of  the  '  Sonnet  to  the  Moon'  variety." 

The  river,  which  went  here  by  the  name  of  Sesheke,  was 
found  to  be  the  Zambesi,  which  had  not  previously  been 
known  to  exist  in  that  region.  In  writing  about  it  to  his 
brother  Charles,  he  says,  "  It  was  the  first  river  I  ever  saw." 
Its  discovery  in  this  locality  constituted  one  of  the  great 
geographical  feats  with  which  the  name  of  Livingstone  is 
connected.  He  heard  of  rapids  above,  and  of  great  water- 
falls below ;  but  it  was  reserved  for  him  on  a  future  visit 
to  behold  the  great  Victoria  Falls,  which  in  the  popular 
imagination  have  filled  a  higher  place  than  many  of  his 
more  useful  discoveries. 


130  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

The  travelers  were  still  a  good  many  days'  distance  froja 
Ma-mochisane,  without  whose  presence  nothing  could  be 
settled;  but  besides,  the  reedy  banks  of  the  rivers  were 
found  to  be  unsuitable  for  a  settlement,  and  the  higher 
regions  were  too  much  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  Mosilikatse. 
Livingstone  saw  no  prospect  of  obtaining  a  suitable  station, 
and  with  great  reluctance  he  made  up  his  mind  to  retrace 
the  weary  road,  and  return  to  Kolobeng.  The  people  were 
very  anxious  for  him  to  stay,  and  offered  to  make  a  garden 
for  him,  and  to  fulfill  Sebituane's  promise  to  give  him 
oxen  in  return  for  those  killed  by  the  tsetse. 

Setting  out  with  the  wagons  on  13th  August,  1851,  the 
T)arty  proceeded  slowly  homeward.  On  15th  September, 
i851,  Livingstone's  Journal  has  this  unexpected  and  simple 
entry:  "A  son,  William  Oswell  Livingstone,*  born  at  a 
place  we  always  call  Bellevue."  On  the  18th :  "  Thomas 
attacked  by  fever ;  removed  to  a  high  part  on  his  account. 
Thomas  was  seized  with  fever  three  times  at  about  an  in- 
terval of  a  fortnight."  Not  a  word  about  Mrs.  Livingstone, 
but  three  pages  of  observations  about  medical  treatment 
of  fever,  thunderstorms,  constitutions  of  Indian  and  African 
people,  leanness  of  the  game,  letter  received  from  Directors 
approving  generally  of  his  course,  a  gold  watch  sent  by 
Captain  Steele,  and  Gordon  Cumming's  book, "  a  miserably 
poor  thing."  Amazed,  we  ask.  Had  Livingstone  any  heart? 
But  ere  long  we  come  upon  a  copy  of  a  letter,  and  some 
remarks  connected  with  it,  that  give  us  an  impression  of 
the  depth  and  strength  of  his  nature,  unsurpassed  by  any- 
thing that  has  yet  occurred. 

"The  following  extracts,"  he  says,  "show  in  what  light 
our  efforts  are  regarded  by  those  who,  as  much  as  we  do, 
desire  that  the  'gospel  may  be  preached  to  all  nations.'" 
Then  follows  a  copy  of  a  letter  which  had  been  addressed 

*  He  had  intended  to  call  him  Charles,  and  announced  this  to  his  father;  but, 
finding  that  Mr.  Oswell,  to  whom  he  was  so  much  indebted,  would  be  pleased 
with  the  comDliment,  he  changed  his  purpose  and  the  name  accordingly. 


KOLOBENG—LAKE  'IS G AMI.  131 

to  him  before  they  set  out  by  Mrs.  Moffat,  his  mother-in- 
law,  remonstrating  in  the  strongest  terms  against  his  plan 
of  taking  his  wife  with  him ;  reminding  him  of  the  death 
of  the  child,  and  other  sad  occurrences  of  last  year ;  and 
in  the  name  of  everything  that  was  just,  kind,  and  even 
decent,  beseeching  him  to  abandon  an  arrangement  which 
all  the  world  would  condemn.  Another  letter  from  the 
same  writer  informed  him  that  much  prayer  had  been 
offered  that,  if  the  arrangements  were  not  in  accordance 
with  Christian  propriety,  he  might  in  great  mercy  be  pre- 
vented by  some  dispensation  of  Providence  from  carrying 
them  out.  Mrs.  Moffat  was  a  woman  of  the  highest  gifts 
and  character,  and  full  of  admiration  for  Livingstone.  The 
insertion  of  these  letters  in  his  Journal  shows  that,  in 
carrying  out  his  plan,  the  objections  to  which  it  was  liable 
were  before  his  mind  in  the  strongest  conceivable  form. 
No  man  who  knows  what  Livingstone  was  will  imagine 
for  a  moment  that  he  had  not  the  most  tender  regard  for 
the  health,  the  comfort,  and  the  feelings  of  his  wife;  in 
matters  of  delicacy  he  had  the  most  scrupulous  regard  to 
propriety ;  his  resolution  to  take  her  with  him  must,  there, 
fore,  have  sprung  from  something  far  stronger  than  even 
his  affection  for  her.    What  was  this  stronger  force  ? 

It  was  his  inviolable  sense  of  duty,  and  his  indefeasibla 
conviction  that  his  Father  in  heaven  would  not  forsake 
him  whilst  pursuing  a  course  in  obedience  to  his  will,  and 
designed  to  advance  the  welfare  of  his  children.  As  this 
furnishes  the  key  to  Livingstone's  future  life,  and  the 
answer  to  one  of  the  most  serious  objections  ever  brought 
against  it,  it  is  right  to  spend  a  little  time  in  elucidating 
the  principles  by  which  he  was  guided. 

There  was  a  saying  of  the  late  Sir  Herbert  Edwardes 
which  he  highly  valued :  "  He  who  has  to  act  on  his  own 
responsibility  is  a  slave  if  he  does  not  act  on  his  own  judg- 
ment." Acting  on  this  maxim,  he  must  set  aside  the  views 
of  others  as  to  his  duty,  provided  his  own  judgment  was 


132  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

clear  regarding  it.  He  must  even  set  aside  "the  feelings 
and  apparent  interest  of  those  dearest  to  him,  because  duty 
was  above  everything  else.  His  faith  in  God  convinced  him 
that,  in  the  long  run,  it  could  never  be  the  worse  for  him 
and  his  that  he  had  firmly  done  his  duty.  All  true  faith 
has  in  it  an  element  of  venture,  and  in  Livingstone's  faith 
this  element  was  strong.  Trusting  God,  he  could  expose  to 
venture  even  the  health,  comfort,  and  welfare  of  his  wife 
and  children.  He  was  convinced  that  it  was  his  duty  to 
go  forth  with  them  and  seek  a  new  station  for  the  Gospel 
in  Sebituane's  country.  If  this  was  true,  God  would  take 
care  of  them,  and  it  was  "  better  to  trust  in  the  Lord  than 
to  put  confidence  in  man."  People  thoughtlessly  accused 
him  of  making  light  of  the  interests  of  his  family.  No 
man  suffered  keener  pangs  from  the  course  he  had  to  follow 
concerning  them,  and  no  man  pondered  more  deeply  what 
duty  to  them  required. 

But  to  do  all  this,  Livingstone  must  have  had  a  very 
clear  perception  of  the  course  of  duty.  This  is  true.  But 
how  did  he  get  this?  First,  his  singleness  of  heart,  so  to 
speak,  attracted  the  light:  "If  thine  eye  be  single,  thy 
whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light."  Then,  he  was  very  clear 
and  very  minute  in  his  prayers.  Further,  he  was  most 
careful  to  scan  all  the  providential  indications  that  might 
throw  light  on  the  Divine  will.  And  when  he  had  been 
carried  so  far  on  in  the  line  of  duty,  he  had  a  strong 
presumption  that  the  line  would  be  continued,  and  that 
he  would  not  be  called  to  turn  back.  It  was  in  front,  not 
in  rear,  that  he  expected  to  find  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  the 
pillar  of  fire.  In  course  of  time,  this  hardened  into  a  strong 
instinctive  habit,  which  almost  dispensed  with  the  process 
of  reasoning. 

In  Dean  Stanley's  Sinai  and  Palestine  allusion  is  made 
to  a  kindred  experience, — that  which  bore  Abraham  from 
Chaldea,  Moses  from  Egypt,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  tribes 
from  the  comfortable  pastures  of  Gilead  and  Bashan  to  the 


KOLOBENO—LAKE  'NGAML  133 

nigged  hill -country  of  Judah  and  Ephraim.  Notwith- 
standing all  the  attractions  of  the  richer  countries^  they 
were  borne  onward  and  forward,  not  knowing  whither  they 
went,  instinctively  feeling  that  they  were  fulfilling  the  high 
purposes  to  which  they  were  called.  In  the  later  part  of 
Livingstone's  life,  the  necessity  of  going  forw^ard  to  the 
close  of  the  career  that  had  opened  for  him  seemed  to  settle 
the  whole  question  of  duty. 

But  at  this  earlier  stage,  he  had  been  conscientiously 
scrutinizing  all  that  had  any  bearing  on  that  question;  and 
now  that  he  finds  himself  close  to  his  home,  and  can  thank 
God  for  the  safe  confinement  of  his  wife,  and  the  health  of 
the  new-born  child,  he  gathers  together  all  the  providences 
that  showed  that  in  this  journey,  which  excited  such  horror 
even  among  his  best  friends,  he  had  after  all  been  following 
the  guidance  of  his  Father.  First,  in  the  matter  of  guides, 
he  had  been  wonderfully  helped,  notwithstanding  a  deep 
plot  to  deprive  him  of  any.  Then  there  was  the  sickness 
of  Sekomi,  whose  interest  had  been  secured  through  his 
going  to  see  him,  and  prescribing  for  him ;  this  had  pro- 
pitiated one  of  the  tribes.  The  services  of  Shobo,  too,  and 
the  selection  of  the  northern  route,  proposed  by  Kamati, 
had  been  of  great  use.  Their  going  to  Sesheke,  and  their 
detention  for  two  months,  thus  allowing  them  time  to  collect 
information  respecting  the  whole  country;  the  river  Chobe 
not  rising  at  its  usual  time;  the  saving  of  Livingstone's 
oxen  from  the  tsetse,  notwithstanding  their  detention  on 
the  Zouga ;  his  not  going  with  Mr.  Oswell  to  a  place  where 
the  tsetse  destroyed  many  of  the  oxen ;  the  better  health 
of  Mrs.  Livingstone  during  her  confinement  than  in  any 
previous  one;  a  very  opportune  present  they  had  got,  just 
before  her  confinement,  of  two  bottles  of  wine;^  the  appro- 
bation of  the  Directors,  the  presentation  of  a  gold  watch 

*  In  writing  to  his  father,  Livingstone  mentions  that  the  wine  was  a  gift  from 
Mrs.  Bysshe  Shelley,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  aid  in  repairing  a  wheel  of  hei 
wagon. 
12 


134  DAV7D  LIVINGSTONE. 

by  Captain  Steele,  the  kind  attentions  of  Mr.  Oswell,  and 
the  cookery  of  one  of  their  native  servants  named  George ; 
the  recovery  of  Thomas,  whereas  at  Kuruman  a  child  had 
been  cut  off;  the  commencement  of  the  rains,  just  as  they 
were  leaving  the  river,  and  the  request  of  Mr.  Oswell  that 
they  should  draw  upon  him  for  as  much  money  as  they 
should  need,  were  all  among  the  indications  that  a  faithful 
and  protecting  Father  in  heaven  had  been  ordering  their 
path,  and  would  order  it  in  like  manner  in  all  time  to  come. 

Writing  at  this  time  to  his  father-in-law,  Mr.  Moffat,  he 
said,  after  announcing  the  birth  of  Oswell :  "  What  you 
say  about  difference  of  opinion  is  true.  In  my  past  life, 
I  have  always  managed  to  think  for  myself,  and  act 
accordingly.  I  have  occasionally  met  with  people  who 
took  it  on  themselves  to  act  for  me,  and  they  have  offered 
their  thoughts  with  an  emphatic  *  I  think  * ;  but  I  have 
excused  them  on  the  score  of  being  a  little  soft-headed  in 
believing  they  could  think  both  for  me  and  themselves." 

While  Kolobeng  was  Livingstone's  headquarters,  a  new 
trouble  rose  upon  the  mission  horizon.  The  Makololo  (aa 
Sebituane's  people  were  called)  began  to  practice  the  slave- 
trade.  It  arose  simply  from  their  desire  to  possess  guns. 
For  eight  old  muskets  they  had  given  to  a  neighboring 
tribe  eight  boys,  that  had  been  taken  from  their  enemies 
in  war,  being  the  only  article  for  which  the  guns  could  be 
got.  Soon  after,  in  a  fray  against  another  tribe,  two 
hundred  captives  were  taken,  and,  on  returning,  the  Mako- 
lolo met  some  Arab  traders  from  Zanzibar,  who  for  three 
muskets  received  about  thirty  of  their  captives. 

Another  of  the  master  ideas  of  his  life  now  began  to 
take  hold  upon  Livingstone.  Africa  was  exposed  to  a 
terrible  evil  through  the  desire  of  the  natives  to  possess 
articles  of  European  manufacture,  and  their  readiness  for 
this  purpose  to  engage  in  the  slave-trade.  Though  no 
African  had  ever  been  known  to  sell  his  own  children  into 
captivity,  the  tribes  were  ready  enough  to  sell  other  chil- 


KOLOBENG—LAKE  'NGAML  135 

dren  that  had  fallen  into  their  hands  by  war  or  otherwise. 
But  if  a  legitimate  traffic  were  established  through  which 
they  might  obtain  whatever  European  goods  they  desired 
in  exchange  for  ivory  and  other  articles  of  native  produce, 
would  not  this  frightful  slave-trade  be  brought  to  an  end  ? 
The  idea  was  destined  to  receive  many  a  confirmation  be- 
fore Livingstone  drew  his  last  breath  of  African  air.  It 
naturally  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  purpose  which  had 
already  struck  its  roots  into  his  soul — to  find  a  road  to  the 
sea  either  on  the  eastern  or  western  coast.  Interests  wider 
and  grander  than  even  the  planting  of  mission  stations  on 
the  territories  of  Sebituane  now  rose  to  his  view.  The 
welfare  of  the  whole  continent,  both  spiritual  and  temporal, 
was  concerned  in  the  success  of  this  plan  of  opening  new 
channels  to  the  enterprise  of  British  and  other  merchants, 
always  eager  to  hear  of  new  markets  for  their  goods.  By 
driving  away  the  slave-trade,  much  would  be  done  to 
prepare  the  way  for  Christian  missions  which  could  not 
thrive  in  an  atmosphere  of  war  and  commotion.  An  idea 
involving  issues  so  vast  was  fitted  to  take  a  right  powerful 
hold  on  Livingstone's  heart,  and  make  him  feel  that  no 
sacrifice  could  be  too  great  to  be  encountered,  cheerfully 
and  patiently,  for  such  an  end. 

Writing  to  the  Directors  (October,  1851),  he  says : 

"  You  will  see  by  the  accompanying  sketch-map  what  an  immense 
region  God  in  his  grace  has  opened  up.  If  we  can  enter  in  and  form  a 
settlement,  we  shall  be  able  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  years  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  slave-trade  in  that  quarter.  It  is  probable  that  the  mere 
supply  of  English  manufacturers  on  Sebituane's  part  will  effect  this,  for 
they  did  not  like  the  slave-trade,  and  promised  to  abstain.  I  think  it 
will  be  impossible  to  make  a  fair  commencement  unless  I  can  secure 
two  years  devoid  of  family  cares.  I  shall  be  obliged  to  go  southward, 
perhaps  to  the  Cape,  to  have  my  uvula  excised  and  my  arm  mended 
(the  latter,  if  it  can  be  done,  only).  It  has  occurred  to  me  that,  as  we 
must  send  our  children  to  England,  it  would  be  no  great  additional 
expense  to  send  them  now  along  with  their  mother.  This  arrangement 
would  enable  me  to  proceed,  and  devote  about  two  or  perhaps  three 
years  to  this  new  region  j  but  I  must  beg  your  sanction,  and  if  you 


136  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

please  let  it  be  given  or  withheld  as  soon  as  you  can  conveniently,  so 
that  it  might  meet  me  at  the  Cape.  To  orphanize  my  children  will  be 
like  tearing  out  my  bowels,  but  when  I  can  find  time  to  write  you  fully 
you  will  perceive  it  is  the  only  way,  except  giving  up  that  region 
altogether. 

"  Kuruman  will  not  answer  as  a  residence,  nor  yet  the  Colony.  If  I 
were  to  follow  my  own  inclinations,  they  would  lead  me  to  settle  down 
quietly  with  the  Bakwains,  or  some  other  small  tribe,  and  devote  some 
of  my  time  to  my  children  ;  but  Providence  seems  to  call  me  to  the  regions 
heyondj  and  if  I  leave  them  anywhere  in  this  country,  it  will  be  to  let 
them  become  heathens.  If  you  think  it  right  to  support  them,  I  believe 
jmy  parents  in  Scotland  would  attend  to  them  otherwise." 

Continuing  the  subject  in  a  mo\e  leisurely  way  a  few 
weeks  later,  he  refers  to  the  very  great  increase  of  traffic 
that  had  taken  place  since  the  discovery  of  Lake  'Ngami 
two  years  before ;  the  fondness  of  the  people  for  European 
articles;  the  numerous  kinds  of  native  produce  besides 
ivory,  such  as  beeswax,  ostrich  feathers,  etc.,  of  which  the 
natives  made  little  or  no  use,  but  which  they  would  take 
care  of  if  regular  trade  were  established  among  them.  He 
thought  that  if  traders  were  to  come  up  the  Zambesi  and 
make  purchases  from  the  producers  they  would  both 
benefit  themselves  and  drive  the  slave-dealer  from  the 
market.  It  might  be  useful  to  establish  a  sanatorium,  to 
which  missionaries  might  come  from  less  healthy  districts 
to  recruit.  This  would  diminish  the  reluctance  of  mis- 
sionaries to  settle  in  the  interior.  For  himself,  though  he 
had  reared  three  stations  with  much  bodily  labor  and 
fatigue,  he  would  cheerfully  undergo  much  more  if  a  new 
station  would  answer  such  objects.  In  referring  to  the 
countries  drained  by  the  Zambesi,  he  believed  he  was 
speaking  of  a  large  section  of  the  slave-producing  region 
of  Africa.  He  then  went  on  to  say  that  to  a  certain  extent 
their  hopes  had  been  disappointed;  Mr.  Oswell  had  not 
been  able  to  find  a  passage  to  the  sea,  and  he  had  not 
been  able  to  find  a  station  for  missionary  work.  They 
had  therefore  returned  together.    "  He  assisted  me,"  adds 


KOLOBENG—LAKE  'NGAMI.  137 

Livingstone,  "in  every  possible  way.    May  God  reward 

him  I" 

In  regard  to  mission  work  for  the  future  an  important 
question  arose,  What  should  be  done  for  the  Bakwains? 
They  could  not  remain  at  Kolobeng — hunger  and  the 
Boers  decided  that  point.  Was  it  not,  then,  his  duty  to 
find  and  found  a  new  station  for  them  ?  Dr.  Livingstone 
thought  not.  He  had  always  told  them  that  he  would 
remain  with  them  only  for  a  few  years.  One  of  hib  great 
ideas  on  missions  in  Africa  was  that  a  fair  trial  should  be 
given  to  as  many  places  as  possible,  and  if  the  trial  did 
not  succeed  the  missionaries  should  pass  on  to  other  tribes. 
He  had  a  great  aversion  to  the  common  impression  that 
the  less  success  one  had  the  stronger  was  one's  duty  to 
remain.  Missionaries  were  only  too  ready  to  settle  down 
and  make  themselves  as  comfortable  as  possible,  whereas 
the  great  need  was  for  men  to  move  on,  to  strike  out  into 
the  regions  beyond,  to  go  into  all  the  world.  He  had  far 
more  sympathy  for  tribes  that  had  never  heard  the  gospel 
than  for  those  who  had  had  it  for  years.  He  used  to  refer 
to  certain  tribes  near  Griqualand  that  had  got  a  little 
instruction,  but  had  no  stated  missionaries ;  they  used  to 
send  some  of  their  people  to  thb  Griquas  to  learn  what 
they  could,  and  afterward  some  others ;  and  these  persons, 
returning,  communicated  what  they  knew,  till  a  wonderful 
measure  of  knowledge  was  acquired,  and  a  numerous 
church  was  formed.  If  the  seed  had  once  been  sown  in 
any  place  it  would  not  remain  dormant,  but  would  excite 
the  desire  for  further  knowledge;  and  on  the  whole  it 
would  De  better  for  the  people  to  be  thrown  somewhat  on 
their  own  resources  than  to  have  everything  done  for  them 
by  missionaries  from  Europe.  In  regard  to  the  Bakwains, 
though  they  had  promised  well  at  first,  they  had  not  been 
a  very  teachable  people.  He  was  not  inclined  to  blame 
them ;  they  had  been  so  pinched  by  hunger  and  badgered 
by  the  Boers  that  they  could  not  attend  to  instruction ;  or 


138  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

rather,  they  had  too  good  an  excuse  for  not  doing  so.  "1 
have  much  affection  for  them,"  he  says  in  his  Journal, 
"  and  though  I  pass  from  them  I  do  not  relinquish  the 
hope  that  they  will  yet  turn  to  Him  to  whose  mercy  and 
love  they  have  often  been  invited.  The  seed  of  the  living 
Word  will  not  perish." 

The  finger  of  Providence  clearly  pointed  to  a  region 
farther  north  in  the  country  of  the  Barotse  or  beyond  it. 
He  admitted  that  there  were  pros  and  covis  in  the  case. 
Against  his  plan, — some  of  his  brethren  did  not  hesitate  to 
charge  him  with  being  actuated  by  worldly  ambition. 
This  was  the  more  trying,  for  sometimes  he  suspected  his 
own  motives.  Others  dwelt  on  what  was  due  to  his  family. 
Moreover,  his  own  predilections  were  all  for  a  quiet  life. 
And  there  was  also  the  consideration,  that  as  the  Directors 
could  not  well  realize  the  distances  he  would  have  to  travel 
before  he  reached  the  field,  he  might  appear  more  as  an 
explorer  than  a  missionary.     On  the  other  hand: 

"  I  am  conscious,"  he  says,  "  that  though  there  is  much  impurity  In 
my  motives,  they  are  in  the  main  for  the  glory  of  Him  to  whom  I  have 
devoted  myself.  I  never  anticipated  fame  from  the  discovery  of  the 
Lake.  I  cared  very  little  about  it,  but  the  sight  of  the  Tamanak'le,  and 
the  report  of  other  large  rivers  beyond,  all  densely  populated,  awakened 
many  and  enthusiastic  feelings.  ,  .  .  Then,  again,  consider  the 
multitude  that  in  the  Providence  of  God  have  been  brought  to  light  in 
the  country  of  Sebituane;  the  probability  that  in  our  efforts  to  evangelize 
we  shall  put  a  stop  to  the  slave-trade  in  a  large  region,  and  by  means 
of  the  highway  into  the  !N'orth  which  we  have  discovered  bring  unknown 
nations  into  the  sympathies  of  the  Christian  world.  If  I  were  to  choose 
my  work,  it  would  be  to  reduce  this  new  language,  translate  the  Bible 
into  it,  and  be  the  means  of  forming  a  small  church.  Let  this  be  aC' 
complished,  I  think  I  could  then  lie  down  and  die  contented.  Two 
years'  absence  will  be  necessary.  .  .  .  Nothing  but  a  strong  con* 
viction  that  the  step  will  lead  to  the  glory  of  Christ  would  make  me 
orphanize  my  children.  Even  now  my  bowels  yearn  over  them.  They 
will  forget  me ;  but  I  hope  when  the  day  of  trial  comes,  I  shall  not  be 
found  a  more  sorry  soldier  than  those  who  serve  an  earthly  sovereign. 
Should  you  not  feel  yourselves  justified  in  incurring  the  expense  of  their 
support  in  England,  I  shall  feel  called  upon  to  renounce  the  hope  ^' 


KOLOBENG—LAKE  'NGAML  139 

carrying  the  gospel  into  that  country,  and  labor  among  those  who  live 
in  a  more  healthy  country,  viz.,  the  Bakwains.  But,  stay,  I  am  not 
sure;  so  powerfully  convinced  am  I  that  it  is  the  will  of  the  Lord  I 
ehould,  /  will  gOj  no  matter  who  opposes  ;  but  from  you  I  expect  nothing 
but  encouragement.  I  know  you  wish  as  ardently  as  I  can  that  all  the 
world  may  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  I  feel  relieved  when  I 
lay  the  whole  case  before  you." 

He  proposed  that  a  brother  missionary,  Mr.  Ashton, 
should  be  placed  among  the  Bamangwato,  a  people  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  spreading  themselves  through  the 
Bakalahari,  and  should  thus  form  a  link  between  himself 
and  the  brethren  in  the  south. 

In  a  postscript,  dated  Bamangwato,  14th  November,  he 
gratefully  acknowledges  a  letter  from  the  Directors,  in 
which  his  plans  are  approved  of  generally.  They  had 
recommended  him  to  complete  a  dictionary  of  the  Sichuana 
language.  This  he  would  have  been  delighted  to  do  when 
his  mind  was  full  of  the  subject,  but  with  the  new  projects 
now  before  him,  and  the  probability  of  having  to  deal  with 
a  new  language  for  the  Zambesi  district,  he  could  not 
undertake  such  a  work  at  present. 

In  a  subsequent  letter  to  the  Directors  (Cape  Town,  17th 
March,  1852),  Livingstone  finds  it  necessary  to  go  into  full 
details  with  regard  to  his  finances.  Though  he  writes  with 
perfect  calmness,  it  is  evident  that  his  exchequer  was  sadly 
embarrassed.  In  fact,  he  had  already  not  only  spent  all 
the  salary  (£100)  of  1852,  but  fifty-seven  pounds  of  185S, 
and  the  balance  would  be  absorbed  by  expenses  in  Capo 
Town.  He  had  been  as  economical  as  possible ;  in  personal 
expenditure  most  careful — he  had  been  a  teetotaler  for 
twenty  years.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  express  his  conviction 
that  the  salary  was  inadequate,  and  to  urge  the  Directors 
to  defray  the  extra  expenditure  which  was  now  inevitable; 
but  with  characteristic  generosity  he  urged  Mr.  Mofiat'a 
claims  much  more  warmly  than  his  own. 

From  expressions  in  Livingstone's  letter  to  the  Directors, 


140  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

it  is  evident  that  he  was  fully  aware  of  the  risk  he  ran,  in 
his  new  line  of  work,  of  appearing  to  sink  the  missionary 
in  the  explorer.  There  is  no  doubt  that  next  to  the  charge 
of  forgetting  the  claims  of  his  family,  to  which  we  have 
already  adverted,  this  was  the  most  plausible  of  the  objec- 
tions taken  to  his  susequent  career.  But  any  one  who  has 
candidly  followed  his  course  of  thought  and  feeling  from 
the  moment  when  the  sense  of  unseen  realities  burst  on  him 
at  Blantyre,  to  the  time  at  which  we  have  now  arrived, 
must  see  that  this  view  is  althogether  destitute  of  support. 
The  impulse  of  divine  love  that  had  urged  him  first  to 
become  a  missionary  had  now  become  with  him  the  settled 
habit  of  his  life.  No  new  ambition  had  flitted  across  his 
path,  for  though  he  had  become  known  as  a  geographical 
discoverer,  he  says  he  thought  very  little  of  the  fact,  and  his 
life  shows  this  to  have  been  true.  Twelve  years  of  mission- 
ary life  had  given  birth  to  no  sense  of  weariness,  no  abate- 
ment of  interest  in  these  poor  black  savages,  no  reluctance  to 
make  common  cause  with  them  in  the  affairs  of  life,  no  de- 
spair of  being  able  to  do  them  good.  On  the  contrary,  he 
was  confirmed  in  his  opinion  of  the  efiicacy  of  his  favorite 
plan  of  native  agency,  and  if  he  could  but  get  a  suitable 
base  of  operations,  he  was  eager  to  set  it  going,  and  on  every 
side  he  was  assured  of  native  welcome.  Shortly  before  (5th 
February,  1850),  when  writing  to  his  father  with  reference 
to  a  proposal  of  his  brother  Charles  that  he  should  go  and 
settle  in  America,  he  had  said :  "  I  am  a  missionary,  heart 
and  soul.  God  had  an  only  Son,  and  He  was  a  missionary 
and  a  physician.  A  poor,  poor  imitation  of  Him  I  am,  or 
wish  to  be.  In  this  service  I  hope  to  live,  in  it  I  wish  to 
die."  The  spectre  of  the  slave-trade  had  enlarged  his  hori- 
zon, and  shown  him  the  necessity  of  a  commercial  revolu- 
tion for  the  whole  of  Africa,  before  effectual  and  permanent 
good  could  be  done  in  any  part  of  it.  The  plan  which  he 
had  now  in  view  multiplied  the  risks  he  ran,  and  compelled 
him  to  think  anew  whether  he  was  ready  to  sacrifice  him- 


KOL  OBENQ—LAKE  'N  GAML  141 

self,  and  if  so,  for  what.  All  that  Livingstone  did  was  thus 
done  with  open  eyes  and  well-considered  resolution.  Ad- 
verting to  the  prevalence  of  fever  in  some  parts  of  the 
country,  while  other  parts  were  comparatively  healthy,  he 
says  in  his  Journal :  "  I  offer  myself  as  a  forlorn  hope  in 
order  to  ascertain  whether  there  is  a  place  fit  to  he  a  sana- 
torium for  more  unhealthy  spots.  May  God  accept  my 
service,  and  use  me  for  his  glory.  A  great  honor  it  is  to' 
be  a  fellow- worker  with  God."  "  It  is  a  great  venture,"  he 
writes  to  his  sister  (28th  April,  1851).  "  Fever  may  cut  us 
all  off.  I  feel  much  when  I  think  of  the  children  dying. 
But  who  will  go  if  we  don't?  Not  one.  I  would  venture 
everything  for  Christ.  Pity  I  have  so  little  to  give.  But 
He  will  accept  us,  for  He  is  a  good  master.  Never  one  like 
Him.  He  can  sympathize.  May  He  forgive,  and  purify, 
and  bless  us." 

If  in  his  spirit  of  high  consecration  he  was  thus  un- 
changed, equally  far  was  he  from  having  a  fanatical  dis- 
regard of  life,  and  the  rules  of  provident  living. 

''Jesus,"  he  says,  "came  not  to  judge, — Kpivu, — condemn  judicially,  or 
execute  vengeance  on  any  one.  His  was  a  message  of  peace  and  love. 
He  shall  not  strive  nor  cry,  neither  shall  his  voice  be  heard  in  the 
streets.  Missionaries  ought  to  follow  his  example.  Neither  insist  on 
our  rights,  nor  appear  as  if  we  could  allow  our  goods  to  be  destroyed 
without  regret :  for  if  we  are  righteous  overmuch,  or  stand  up  for  our 
rights  with  too  much  vehemence,  we  beget  dislikes,  and  the  people  see 
no  difference  between  ourselves  and  them.  And  if  we  appear  to  care 
nothing  for  the  things  of  this  world,  they  conclude  we  are  rich,  and  when 
they  beg,  our  refusal  is  ascribed  to  niggardliness,  and  our  property,  too, 
is  wantonly  destroyed.  *Ga  ba  tloke'=they  are  not  in  need,  is  the 
phrase  employed  when  our  goods  are  allowed  to  go  to  destruction  by  the 
neglect  of  servants.  ...  In  coming  among  savage  people,  we  ought 
to  make  them  feel  we  are  of  them,  '  we  seek  not  yours,  but  you ' ;  but 
while  very  careful  not  to  make  a  gain  of  them,  we  ought  to  be  as  careful 
to  appear  thankful,  and  appreciate  any  effort  they  may  make  for  our 
comfort  or  subsistence." 

On  reaching  Kolobeng  from  'Ngami  they  found  the  station 
deserted.     The  Bakwains  had  removed  to  Limaiie.    Sechele 


142  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

came  down  the  day  after,  and  presented  them  with  an  ox 
— a  valuable  gift  in  his  circumstances.  Sechele  had  much 
yet  to  bear  from  the  Boers;  and  after  being,  without  provo- 
cation, attacked,  pillaged,  and  wasted,  and  robbed  of  his 
children,  he  was  bent  on  going  to  the  Queen  of  England 
to  state  his  wrongs.  This,  however,  he  could  not  accomplish, 
though  he  went  as  far  as  the  Cape.  Coming  back  after- 
ward to  his  own  people,  he  gathered  large  numbers  about 
him  from  other  tribes,  to  whose  improvement  he  devoted 
himself  with  much  success.  He  still  survives,  with  the 
one  wife  whom  he  retained ;  and,  though  not  without  some 
drawbacks  (which  Livingstone  ascribed  to  the  bad  example 
set  him  by  some),  he  maintains  his  Christian  profession. 
His  people  are  settled  at  some  miles'  distance  from  Kolo- 
beng,  and  have  a  missionary  station,  supported  by  a  Hano- 
verian Society.  His  regard  for  the  memory  of  Livingstone 
is  very  great,  and  he  reads  with  eagerness  all  that  he  can 
find  about  him.  He  has  ever  been  a  warm  friend  of  missions 
has  a  wonderful  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  can  preach 
well.  The  influence  of  Livingstone  in  his  early  days  was 
doubtless  a  real  power  in  mission-work.  Mebalwe,  too,  we 
are  informed  by  Dr.  Moffat,  still  survives;  a  useful  man, 
an  able  preacher,  and  one  who  has  done  much  to  bring  his 
people  to  Christ. 

It  was  painful  to  Livingstone  to  say  good-bye  to  tho 
Bakwains,  and  (as  Mrs.  Moffat  afterward  reminded  him) 
his  friends  were  not  all  in  favor  of  his  doing  so;  but  he 
regarded  his  departure  as  inevitable.  After  a  short  stay  at 
jKuruman,  he  and  his  family  went  on  to  Cape  Town,  where 
they  arrived  on  the  16th  of  March,  1852,  and  had  new  proofs 
of  Mr.  Oswell's  kindness.  After  eleven  years'  absence, 
Livingstone's  dress-coat  had  fallen  a  little  out  of  fashion, 
and  the  whole  costume  of  the  party  was  somewhat  in  the 
style  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  The  generosity  of  "the  best 
friend  we  have  in  Africa"  made  all  comfortable,  Mr.  Oswell 
remarking  that  Livingstone  had  as  good  a  right  as  he  to 


KOLOBENO—LAKE  'NQAML  143 

the  money  drawn  from  the  "  preserves  on  his  estate  " — the 
elephants.  Mentally,  Livingstone  traces  to  its  source  the 
kindness  of  his  friend,  thinking  of  One  to  whom  he  owed 
all — "  0  divine  Love,  I  have  not  loved  Thee  strongly,  deeply, 
warmly  enough."  The  retrospect  of  his  eleven  years  of 
African  labor,  unexampled  though  they  had  been,  only 
awakened  in  him  the  sense  of  unprofitable  service. 

Before  closing  the  record  of  this  period,  we  must  take  a 
glance  at  the  remarkable  literary  activity  which  it  wit- 
nessed. We  have  had  occasion  to  refer  to  Livingstone's 
first  letters  to  Captain  Steele,  for  the  Geographical  Society ; 
additional  letters  were  contributed  from  time  to  time.  His 
philological  researches  have  also  been  noticed.  In  addition 
to  these,  we  find  him  writing  two  articles  on  African  Mis- 
sions for  the  British  Quarterly  Review,  only  one  of  which 
was  published.  He  likewise  wrote  two  papers  for  the 
British  Banner  on  the  Boers.  While  crossing  the  desert, 
after  leaving  the  Cape  on  his  first  great  journey,  he  wrote 
a  remarkable  paper  on  "  Missionary  Sacrifices,"  and  another 
©f  great  vigor  on  the  Boers.  Still  another  paper  on  Lake 
'Ngami  was  written  for  a  Missionary  Journal  contemplated, 
but  never  started,  under  the  editorship  of  the  late  Mr. 
Isaac  Taylor ;  and  he  had  one  in  his  mind  on  the  religion 
of  the  Bechuanas,  presenting  a  view  which  differed  some- 
what from  that  of  Mr.  Moffat.  Writing  to  Mr.  Watt  from 
Linyanti  (3d  October,  1853),  on  printing  one  of  his  papers, 
he  says : 

"But  the  expense,  my  dear  man.  "What  a  mess  I  am  in,  writing 
papers  which  cannot  pay  their  own  way  I  Pauper  papers,  in  fact,  which 
must  go  to  the  workhouse  for  support.  Ugh  I  Has  the  Caffire  War 
paper  shared  the  same  fate?  and  the  Language  paper  too?  Here  I 
ijave  two  by  me,  which  I  will  keep  in  their  native  obscurity  One  is  on 
the  South  African  Boers  and  slavery,  in  which  I  show  that  their  church 
is,  and  always  has  been,  the  great  bulwark  of  slavery,  cattle-lifting,  and 
Caffre-marauding ;  and  I  correct  the  mistaken  views  of  some  writers 
who  describe  the  Boers  as  all  that  is  good,  and  of  others  who  describe 
them  as  all  that  is  bad,  by  showing  who  are  the  good  and  who  are  the 


144  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

bad.  The  other,  which  I  rather  admire, — what  father  doesn't  his  own 
progeny  ? — is  on  the  missionary  work,  and  designed  to  aid  young  men 
of  piety  to  form  a  more  correct  idea  of  it  than  is  to  be  had  from  much 
of  the  missionary  biography  of  '  sacrifices.'  I  magnify  the  enterprise, 
exult  in  the  future,  etc.,  etc.  It  was  written  in  coming  across  the  desert, 
and  if  it  never  does  aught  else,  it  imparted  comfort  and  encouragement 
to  myself.^  ...  I  feel  almost  inclined  to  send  it.  .  .  .  If  the 
Caflfre  War  one  is  rejected,  then  farewell  to  spouting  in  Eeviews." 

If  he  had  met  with  more  encouragement  from  editors  he 
would  have  written  more.  But  the  editorial  cold  shoulder 
was  beyond  even  his  power  of  endurance.  He  laid  aside 
his  pen  in  a  kind  of  disgust,  and  this  doubtless  was  one  of 
the  reasons  that  made  him  unwilling  to  resume  it  on  his 
return  to  England.  Editors  were  wiser  then;  and  the 
offer  from  one  London  Magazine  of  £400  for  four  articles, 
and  from  Good  Words  of  £1000  for  a  number  of  papers 
to  be  fixed  afterward, — offers  which,  however,  were  not 
accepted  finally, — showed  how  the  tide  had  turned. 

*  For  extracts  from  the  paper  on  **  Missionary  Sacrifices,"  see  Appendix  No. 
I.  For  part  of  the  paper  on  the  Boers,  see  Catholic  Presbyterian,  December^ 
1879  (Londofi,  Nisbet  and  Co.). 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  146 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FROM   THE   CAPE   TO   LINYANTI. 
A.D.  1852-1853. 

Unfavorable  feeling  at  Cape  Town — Departure  of  Mrs.  Livingstone  and  children 
— Livingstone's  detention  and  difficulties — Letter  to  his  wife — To  Agnes — 
Occupations  at  Cape  Town — The  Astronomer- Royal — Livingstone  leaves  the 
Cape  and  reaches  Kuruman — Destruction  of  Kolobeng  by  the  Boers — Letters 
to  his  wife  and  Rev.  J.  Moore — His  resolution  to  open  up  Africa  or  perish — 
Arrival  at  Linyanti — Unhealthiness  of  the  country — Thoughts  on  setting  out 
for  coast — Sekeletu's  kindness — Livingstone's  missionary  activity — Death  of 
Mpepe,  and  of  his  father — Meeting  with  Ma-mochisane — Barotse  country- 
Determines  to  go  to  Loanda — Heathenism  unadulterated — Taste  for  the 
beautiful — Letter  to  his  children — to  his  father — Last  Sunday  at  Linyanti— 
Prospect  of  his  falling. 

When  Livingstone  arrived  at  the  Cape,  he  found  the 
authorities  in  a  state  of  excitement  over  the  Caffre  War, 
and  very  far  from  friendly  toward  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  some  of  whose  missionaries — himself  among  the 
number — were  regarded  as  "  unpatriotic/'  He  had  a  very 
poor  opinion  of  the  ofl&cials,  and  their  treatment  of  the 
natives  scandalized  him.  He  describes  the  trial  of  an  old 
soldier,  Botha,  as  "  the  most  horrid  exhibition  I  ever  wit- 
nessed." The  noble  conduct  of  Botha  in  prison  was  a 
beautiful  contrast  to  the  scene  in  court.  This  whole  Caffre 
War  had  exemplified  the  blundering  of  the  British  au- 
thorities, and  was  teaching  the  natives  developments,  the 
issue  of  which  could  not  be  foreseen.  As  for  himself,  he 
writes  to  Mr.  Moffat,  that  he  was  cordially  hated,  and  per- 
haps he  might  be  pulled  up ;  but  he  knew  that  some  of  his 
letters  had  been  read  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord 
Brougham  with   pleasure,  and,  possibly,  he  might  get 


146  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

justice.    He  bids  his  father-in-law  not  to  be  surprised  if  he 
saw  him  abused  in  the  newspapers. 

On  the  23d  April,  1852,  Mrs.  Livingstone  and  the  four 
children  sailed  from  Cape  Town  for  England.  The  sending 
of  his  children  to  be  brought  up  by  others  was  a  very  great 
trial,  and  Dr.  Livingstone  seized  the  opportunity  to  impress 
on  the  Directors  that  those  by  whom  missionaries  were 
sent  out  had  a  great  duty  to  the  children  whom  their 
parents  were  compelled  to  send  away.  Referring  to  the 
filthy  conversation  and  ways  of  the  heathen,  he  says : 

"Missionaries  expose  their  children  to  a  contamination  which  they 
have  had  no  hand  in  producing.  We  expose  them  and  ourselves  for  a 
time  in  order  to  elevate  those  sad  captives  of  sin  and  Satan,  who  are  the 
victims  of  the  degradation  of  ages.  None  of  those  who  complain  about 
missionaries  sending  their  children  home  ever  descend  to  this.  And 
again,  as  Mr.  James  in  his  Young  Man  from  Some  forcibly  shows,  a 
greater  misfortune  cannot  befall  a  youth  than  to  be  cast  into  the  world 
without  a  home.  In  regard  to  even  the  vestige  of  a  home,  my  children 
are  absolutely  vagabonds.  When  shall  we  return  to  Kolobeng?  When 
to  Kuruman  ?  Never.  The  mark  of  Cain  is  on  your  foreheads,  your 
father  is  a  missionary.  Our  children  ought  to  have  both  the  sym- 
pathies and  prayers  of  those  at  whose  bidding  we  become  strangers  for 
life." 

"Was  there  ever  a  plea  more  powerful  or  more  just?  It 
is  sad  to  think  that  the  coldness  of  Christians  at  home 
should  have  led  a  man  like  Livingstone  to  fancy  that, 
because  his  children  were  the  children  of  a  missionary, 
they  would  bear  the  mark  of  Cain,  and  be  homeless  vaga- 
bonds. Why  are  we  at  home  so  forgetful  of  the  privilege 
of  refreshing  the  bowels  of  those  who  take  their  lives  in 
their  hands  for  the  love  of  Christ,  by  making  a  home  for 
their  offspring?  In  a  higher  state  of  Christianity  there 
will  be  hundreds  of  the  best  families  at  home  delighted, 
for  the  love  of  their  Master,  to  welcome  and  bring  up  the 
missionary's  children.  And  when  the  Great  Day  comes, 
none  will  more  surely  receive  that  best  of  all  forms  of  re- 
payment, "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  the  least  of  these 
my  brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  Me." 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  147 

Livingstone,  who  had  now  got  the  troublesome  uvula 
cut  out,  was  detained  at  the  Cape  nearly  two  months  after 
his  family  left.  He  was  so  distrusted  by  the  authorities 
that  they  would  hardly  sell  powder  and  shot  to  him,  and 
he  had  to  fight  a  battle  that  demanded  all  his  courage  and 
perseverance  for  a  few  boxes  of  percussion-caps.  At  the  last 
moment,  a  troublesome  country  postmaster,  to  whom  h© 
had  complained  of  an  overcharge  of  postage,  threatened  an 
action  against  him  for  defamation  of  character,  and,  rather 
than  be  further  detained,  deep  in  debt  though  he  was, 
Livingstone  had  to  pay  him  a  considerable  sum.  His 
family  were  much  in  his  thoughts;  he  found  some  relief  in 
writing  by  every  mail.  His  letters  to  his  wife  are  too 
sacred  to  be  spread  before  the  public ;  we  confine  ourselves 
to  a  single  extract,  to  show  over  what  a  host  of  suppressed 
emotions  he  had  to  march  in  this  expedition : 

"  Cape  Town,  bth  May,  1852. — My  dearest  Mart, — How  I  miss  you 
now,  and  the  children  I  My  heart  yearns  incessantly  over  you.  How 
many  thoughts  of  the  past  crowd  into  my  mind  1  I  feel  as  if  I  would 
treat  you  all  much  more  tenderly  and  lovingly  than  ever.  You  have 
been  a  great  blessing  to  me.  You  attended  to  my  comfort  in  many, 
many  ways.  May  God  bless  you  for  all  your  kindnesses  1  I  see  no  face 
now  to  be  compared  with  that  sunburnt  one  which  has  so  often  greeted 
me  with  its  kind  looks.  Let  us  do  our  duty  to  our  Saviour,  and  we 
ehall  meet  again.  I  wish  that  time  were  now.  You  may  read  the 
letters  over  again  which  I  wrote  at  Mabotsa,  the  sweet  time  you  know. 
As  I  told  you  before,  I  tell  you  again,  they  are  true,  true ;  there  is  not  a 
bit  of  hypocrisy  in  them.  I  never  show  all  my  feelings ;  but  I  can  say 
truly,  my  dearest,  that  I  loved  you  when  I  married  you,  and  the  longer 
I  lived  with  you,  T  loved  you  the  better.  .  .  .  Let  us  do  our  duty  to 
Christ,  and  He  will  bring  us  through  the  world  with  honor  and  usef-U- 
ness.  He  is  our  refuge  and  high  tower ;  let  us  trust  in  Him  at  all  times, 
and  in  all  circumstances.  Love  Him  more  and  more,  and  diffuse  his 
love  among  the  children.  Take  them  all  round  you,  and  kiss  them  for 
me.  Tell  them  I  have  left  them  for  the  love  of  Jesus,  and  they  must 
love  Him  too,  and  avoid  sin,  for  that  displeases  Jesus.  I  shall  be 
delighted  to  hear  of  you  all  safe  in  England.     .     ,     ." 

A  few  days  later,  he  writes  to  his  eldest  daughter,  then 
in  her  fifth  year : 


148  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

"  Cape  Town,  ISth  May,  1852. — My  dear  Agnes, — ^This  is  your  own 
little  letter.  Mamma  will  read  it  to  you,  and  you  will  hear  her  just  as 
if  I  were  speaking  to  you,  for  the  words  which  I  write  are  those  which 
she  will  read.  I  am  still  at  Cape  Town.  You  know  you  left  me  there 
when  you  all  went  into  the  big  ship  and  sailed  away.  Well,  I  shall 
leave  Cape  Town  soon.  Malatsi  has  gone  for  the  oxen,  and  then  I  shall 
go  away  back  to  Sebituane's  country,  and  see  Seipone  and  Meriye,  who 
gave  you  the  beads  and  fed  you  with  milk  and  honey.  I  shall  not  see 
you  again  for  a  long  time,  and  I  am  very  sorry.  I  have  no  Nannie  now. 
I  have  given  you  back  to  Jesus,  your  Friend — ^your  Papa  who  is  in 
heaven.  He  is  above  you,  but  He  is  always  near  you.  When  we  ask 
things  from  Him,  that  is  praying  to  Him ;  and  if  you  do  or  say  a 
naughty  thing  ask  Him  to  pardon  you,  and  bless  you,  and  make  you 
one  of  his  children.  Love  Jesus  much,  for  He  loves  you,  and  He  came 
and  died  for  you.  Oh,  how  good  Jesus  isl  I  love  Him,  and  I  shall 
love  Him  as  long  as  I  live.  You  must  love  Him  too,  and  you  must 
love  your  brothers  and  mamma,  and  never  tease  them  or  be  naughty, 
for  Jesus  does  not  like  to  see  naughtiness. — Good-bye,  my  dear  Nannie, 

D.  Livingston." 

Among  his  other  occupations  at  Cape  Town,  Livingstone 
put  himself  under  the  instructions  of  the  Astronomer- 
Royal,  Mr.  (afterward  Sir  Thomas)  Maclear,  who  became 
one  of  his  best  and  most  esteemed  friends.  His  object  was 
to  qualify  himself  more  thoroughly  for  taking  observations 
that  would  give  perfect  accuracy  to  his  geographical  ex- 
plorations. He  tried  English  preaching  too,  but  his  throat 
was  still  tender,  and  he  felt  very  nervous,  as  he  had  done 
at  Ongar.  ^'  What  a  little  thing,"  he  writes  to  Mr.  Moffat, 
"  is  sufficient  to  bring  down  to  old-wifeishness  such  a  rough 
tyke  as  I  consider  myself!  Poor,  proud  human  nature  is 
a  great  fool  after  all.'*  A  second  effort  was  more  successful. 
"  I  preached,"  he  writes  to  his  wife,  "  on  the  text,  *  Why 
will  ye  die  V  I  had  it  written  out  and  only  referred  to  it 
twice,  which  is  an  improvement  in  English.  I  hope  good 
was  done.  The  people  were  very  attentive  indeed.  I  felt 
less  at  a  loss  than  in  Union  Chapel."^    He  arranged  with 

*  The  manuscript  ot  this  sermon  still  exists.  The  sermon  is  very  simple, 
8Criptural,  and  earnest,  in  the  st^le  of  Bishop  Ryle,  or  of  Mri  Moody. 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  141 

a  mercantile  friend,  Mr.  Rutherfoord,  to  direct  the  opera- 
tions of  a  native  trader,  George  Fleming,  whom  that  gentle- 
man was  to  employ  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  lawful 
traffic  in  order  to  supplant  the  slave-trade. 

It  was  not  till  the  8th  of  June  that  he  left  the  Cape.  His 
wagon  was  loaded  to  double  the  usual  weight  from  his 
good  nature  in  taking  everybody's  packages.  His  oxen 
were  lean,  and  he  was  too  poor  to  provide  better.  He 
reached  Griqua  Town  on  the  15th  August,  and  Kuruman 
a  fortnight  later.  Many  things  had  occasioned  unexpected 
delay,  and  the  last  crowning  detention  was  caused  by  the 
breaking  down  of  a  wheel.  It  turned  out,  however,  that 
these  delays  were  probably  the  means  of  saving  his  life. 
Had  they  not  occurred  he  would  have  reached  Kolobeng 
in  August.  But  this  was  the  very  time  when  the  com- 
mando of  the  Boers,  numbering  600  colonists  and  many 
natives  besides,  were  busy  with  the  work  of  death  and 
destruction.  Had  he  been  at  Kolobeng,  Pretorius  would 
probably  have  executed  his  threat  of  killing  him ;  at  the 
least  he  would  have  deen  deprived  of  all  the  property  that 
he  carried  with  him,  and  his  projected  enterprise  would 
have  been  brought  to  an  end. 

In  a  letter  to  his  wife,  Livingstone  gives  fall  details  of 
the  horrible  outrage  perpetrated  shortly  before  by  the 
Boers  at  Kolobeng : 

"  Kuruman,  20th  September j  1852. — Along  with  ttis  I  send  vou  a  long 
letter;  this  I  write  in  order  to  give  yon  the  latest  news.  The  Boers 
gutted  our  house  at  Kolobeng  j  they  brought  four  wagons  down  and 
took  away  sofa,  table,  bed,  all  the  crockery,  your  desk  (I  hope  it  had 
nothing  in  it — Have  you  the  letters?),  smashed  the  wooden  chairs,  took 
away  the  iron  ones,  tore  out  the  leaves  of  all  the  books,  and  scattered 
them  m  front  of  the  house,  smashed  the  bottles  containing  medicines, 
windows,  oven-door,  took  away  the  smith-bellows,  anvil,  all  the  tools,— 
in  fact  everything  worth  taking ;  three  corn-mills,  a  bag  of  coffee,  for 
which  I  paid  six  pounds,  and  lots  of  coffee,  tea,  and  sugar,  which  the 
gentlemen  wno  went  to  the  north  left ;  took  all  our  cattle  and  Paul's 
and  Mebalwe's.  They  then  went  up  to  Limaiie,  went  to  chureh  momii^ 


150  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

and  afternoon,  and  heard  Mebalwe  preach  I  After  the  second  service 
they  told  Sechele  that  they  had  come  to  fight,  because  he  allowed 
Englishmen  to  proceed  to  the  North,  though  they  had  repeatedly  ordered 
him  not  to  do  so.  He  replied  that  he  was  a  man  of  peace,  that  he  could 
not  molest  Englishmen,  because  they  had  never  done  nim  any  harm, 
and  always  treated  him  well.  In  the  morning  they  commenced  firing 
on  the  town  with  swiveiti,  and  set  fire  to  it.  The  heat  forced  some  of 
the  women  to  flee,  the  men  to  huddle  together  on  the  small  hill  in  the 
middle  of  the  town  j  the  smoke  prevented  them  seeing  the  Boers,  and 
the  cannon  killed  many,  sixty  (60)  Bakwains.  The  Boers  then  came 
near  to  kill  and  destroy  them  all,  but  the  Bakwains  killed  thirty-five 
(35),  and  many  horses.  They  fought  the  whole  day,  but  the  Boera 
could  not  dislodge  them.  They  stopped  firing  in  the  evening,  and  then 
the  Bakwains  retired  on  account  of  having  no  water.  The  above  sixty 
are  not  all  men  ;  women  and  children  are  among  the  slain.  The  Boera 
were  600,  and  they  had  700  natives  with  them.  All  the  corn  is  burned. 
Parties  went  out  and  burned  Bangwaketse  town,  and  swept  ofi*  all  the 
cattle.  Sebubi's  cattle  are  all  gone.  All  the  Bakhatla  cattle  gone. 
Neither  Bangwaketse  nor  Bakhatla  fired  a  shot.  AV  the  corn  burned 
of  the  whole  three  tribes.  Everything  edible  is  taken  froiY  them.  How 
will  they  live  ?  They  told  Sechele  that  the  Queen  had  given  off"  the 
land  to  them,  and  henceforth  they  were  the  masters, — had  abolished 
chieftainship.  Sir  Harry  Smith  tried  the  same,  and  England  has  paid 
two  millions  of  money  to  catch  one  chief,  and  he  is  still  as  free  as  the 
winds  of  heaven.  How  will  it  end  ?  I  don't  know,  but  I  will  tell  you 
the  beginning.  There  are  two  parties  of  Boers  gone  to  the  Lake.  These 
will  to  a  dead  certainty  be  cut  ofi".  They  amount  to  thirty-six  men. 
Parties  are  sent  now  in  pursuit  of  them.  The  Bakwains  will  plunder 
and  murder  the  Boers  without  mercy,  and  by  and  by  the  Boers  will  ask 
the  English  Government  to  assist  them  to  put  down  rebellion,  and  of 
this  rebellion  I  shall  have,  of  course,  to  bear  the  blame.  They  often 
expressed  a  wish  to  get  hold  of  me.  I  wait  here  a  little  in  order  to  get 
information  when  the  path  is  clear.  Kind  Providence  detained  me 
from  falling  into  the  very  thick  of  it.  God  will  preserve  me  still.  He 
has  work  for  me  or  He  would  have  allowed  me  to  go  in  just  when  the 
Boera  were  there.  We  shall  remove  more  easily  now  that  we  are 
lightened  of  our  furniture.  They  have  taken  away  our  sofa.  I  never 
had  a  good  rest  on  it.  We  had  only  got  it  ready  when  we  left.  Well, 
they  can't  have  taken  away  all  the  stones.  We  shall  have  a  seat  in 
spite  of  them,  and  that,  too,  with  a  merry  heart  which  doeth  good  like 
a  medicine.  I  wonder  what  the  Peace  Society  would  do  with  these 
worthies.  They  are  Christians.  The  Dutch  predicants  baptize  all  theif 
children,  and  admit  them  to  the  Lord's  Supper.    •    .    •" 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  151 

Dr.  Livingstone  was  not  disposed  to  restrain  his  indig- 
nation and  grief  over  his  losses.  For  one  so  patient  and 
good,  he  had  a  very  large  vial  of  indignation,  and  on  occa- 
sion poured  it  out  right  heartily  over  all  injustice  and 
cruelty.  On  no  heads  was  it  ever  discharged  more  freely 
than  on  these  Transvaal  Boers.  He  made  a  formal  represen- 
tation of  his  losses  both  to  the  Cape  and  Home  authorities, 
but  never  received  a  farthing  of  compensation.  The  sub- 
sequent history  of  the  Transvaal  Republic  will  convince 
many  that  Livingstone  was  not  far  from  the  truth  in  his 
estimate  of  the  character  of  the  free  and  independent 
Boers. 

But  while  perfectly  sincere  in  his  indignation  over  the 
treatment  of  the  natives  and  his  own  losses,  his  playful 
fancy  could  find  a  ludicrous  side  for  what  concerned  him- 
self, and  grim  enjoyment  in  showing  it  to  his  friends. 
"  Think,"  he  writes  to  his  friend  Watt,  "  think  of  a  big  fat 
Boeress  drinking  coffee  out  of  my  kettle,  and  then  throwing 
her  tallowy  corporeity  on  my  sofa,  or  keeping  her  needles 
in  my  wife^s  writing-desk !  Ugh !  and  then  think  of  foolish 
John  Bull  paying  so  many  thousands  a  year  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  slave-trade,  and  allowing  Commissioner 
Aven  to  make  treaties  with  Boers  who  carry  on  the  slave- 
trade.  .  .  .  The  Boers  are  mad  with  rage  against  me 
because  my  people  fought  bravely.  It  was  I,  they  think, 
who  taught  them  to  shoot  Boers.  Fancy  your  reverend 
friend  teaching  the  young  idea  how  to  shoot  Boers,  and 
praying  for  a  blessing  on  the  work  of  his  hands !" 

In  the  same  spirit  he  writes  to  his  friend  Moore : 

"  I  never  knew  I  was  so  ricli  until  I  recounted  up  the  different  articles 
that  were  taken  away.  They  cannot  be  replaced  in  this  country  under 
£300.  Many  things  brought  to  our  establishment  by  my  better-half 
were  of  considerable  value.  Of  all  I  am  now  lightened,  and  they  want 
to  ease  me  of  my  head.  .  .  .  The  Boers  kill  the  blacks  without 
compunction,  and  without  provocation,  because  they  believe  they  have 
no  souls.  .  .  .  Viewing  the  dispensation  apart  from  the  extreme 
wickedness  of  the  Boers,  it  seemed  a  judgment  on  the  blacks  for  their 


152  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

rejection  of  the  gospel.  They  have  verily  done  despite  unto  the  Spirit 
of  grace.  .  ,  .  Their  enmity  was  not  manifested  to  us,  but  to  the 
gospel.  I  am  grieved  for  them,  and  still  hope  that  the  good  seed  will 
yet  vegetate."^ 

But  while  he  could  relax  playfully  at  the  thought  of  the 
desolation  at  Kolobeng,  he  knew  how  to  make  it  the  occa- 
sion likewise  of  high  resolves.  The  Boers,  as  he  wrote  the 
Directors,  were  resolved  to  shut  up  the  interior.  He  was 
determined,  with  God's  help,  to  open  the  country.  Time 
would  show  which  would  be  most  successful  in  resolution, 
— they  or  he.  To  his  brother-  in-law  he  wrote  that  he  would 
open  a  path  through  the  country,  or  perish. 

As  for  the  contest  with  the  Boers,  we  may  smile  at  their 
impotent  wrath.  It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  while  Sechele 
still  retains  the  position  of  an  independent  chief,  the  re- 
public of  the  Boers  has  passed  away.  It  is  now  part  of  the 
British  Empire. 

The  country  was  so  unsettled  that  for  a  long  time  Dr. 
Livingstone  could  not  get  guides  at  Kuruman  to  go  with 
him  to  Sebituane's.  At  length,  however,  he  succeeded, 
and  leaving  Kuruman  finally  about  the  end  of  December, 
1852,  in  company  with  George  Fleming,  Mr.  Rutherfoord's 
trader,  he  set  out  in  a  new  direction,  to  the  west  of  the  old, 

^— — . —  -■  -  __^^-__^_^__.^— ^^_^_^_ 

*  This  letter  to  Mr.  Moore  contains  a  trait  of  Livingstone,  very  trifling  in  the 
occasion  out  of  which  it  arose,  but  showing  vividly  the  nature  of  the  man.  He 
had  promised  to  send  Mr.  Moore's  little  son  some  curiosities,  but  had  forgotten 
when  his  family  went  to  England.  Being  reminded  of  his  promise  in  a  post- 
script the  little  fellow  had  added  to  a  letter  from  his  father,  Livingstone  is 
"overwhelmed  with  shame  and  confusion  of  face."  He  feels  he  has  disap. 
pointed  the  boy  and  forgotten  his  promise.  Again  and  again  Livingstone  returns 
to  the  subject,  and  feels  assured  that  his  young  friend  would  forgive  him  if  he 
knew  how  much  he  suff"ered  for  his  fault.  That  in  the  midst  of  his  own  over- 
whelming troubles  he  should  feel  so  much  for  the  disappointment  of  a  little 
heart  in  England,  shows  how  terrible  a  thing  it  was  to  him  to  cause  needless 
pain,  and  how  profoundly  it  distressed  him  to  seem  forgetful  of  a  promise. 
Years  afterward  he  wrote  that  he  had  brought  an  elephant's  tail  for  Henry,  but 
one  of  the  men  stole  all  the  hairs  and  sold  them.  He  had  still  a  tusk  of  a 
hippopotamus  for  him,  and  a  tooth  for  his  brother,  but  he  had  brought  no 
curiosities,  for  he  could  scarcely  get  along  himself. 


FBOM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  153 

in  t>tder  to  give  a  wide  berth  to  the  Boers.  Traveling 
rapidly  he  passed  through  Sebituane's  country,  and  in 
June,  1858,  arrived  at  Linyanti,  the  capital  of  the  Makololo. 
He  wrote  to  his  wife  that  he  had  been  very  anxious  to  go 
to  Kolobeng  and  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  destruction 
wrought  by  the  savages.  He  had  a  great  longing,  too, 
to  visit  once  more  the  grave  of  Elizabeth,  their  infant 
daughter,  but  he  heard  that  the  Boers  were  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  were  anxious  to  catch  him,  and  he  thought  it 
best  not  to  go.  Two  years  before,  he  had  been  at  Linyanti 
with  Mr.  Oswell.  Many  details  of  the  new  journey  are 
given  in  the  Missionary  Travels,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to 
repeat.  It  may  be  enough  to  state  that  he  found  the  coun- 
try flooded,  and  that  on  the  way  it  was  no  unusual  thing 
for  him  to  be  wet  all  day,  and  to  walk  through  swamps, 
and  water  three  or  four  feet  deep.  Trees,  thorns,  and 
reeds  offered  tremendous  resistance,  and  he  and  his  people 
must  have  presented  a  pitiable  sight  when  forcing  their 
way  through  reeds  with  cutting  edges.  "  With  our  own 
hands  all  raw  and  bloody,  and  knees  through  our  trousers, 
we  at  length  emerged."  It  was  a  happy  thought  to  tear 
his  pocket-handkerchief  into  two  parts  and  tie  them  over 
his  knees.  "  I  remember,"  he  says  in  his  Journal,  referring 
to  last  yearns  journey,  "  the  toil  which  our  friend  Oswell 
endured  on  our  account.  He  never  spared  himself."  It 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  his  guides  were  happy  in  such  a 
march ;  it  required  his  tact  stretched  to  its  very  utmost  to 
prevent  them  from  turning  back.  "At  the  Malopo,"  he 
writes  to  his  wife.  "  there  were  other  dangers  besides.  When 
walking  before  the  wagon  in  the  morning  twilight,  I  ob- 
served a  lioness  about  fifty  yards  from  me,  in  the  squatting 
way  they  walk  when  going  to  spring.  She  was  followed 
by  a  very  large  lion,  but  seeing  the  wagon,  she  turned 
back."  Though  he  escaped  fever  at  first,  he  had  repeated 
attacks  afterward,  and  had  to  be  constantly  using  remedies 
j^ainst  it.    The  unhealthiness  of  the  region  to  Europeans 


154  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

forced  itself  painfully  on  his  attention,  and  made  him 
wonder  in  what  way  God  would  bring  the  light  of  the 
gospel  to  the  poor  inhabitants.  As  a  physician  his  mind 
was  much  occupied  with  the  nature  of  the  disease,  and  the 
way  to  cure  it.  If  only  he  could  discover  a  remedy  for 
that  scourge  of  Africa,  what  an  invaluable  boon  would  he 
confer  on  its  much-afflicted  people ! 

"  I  would  like,"  he  says  in  his  Journal,  "  to  devote  a  portion  of  my 
life  to  the  discovery  of  a  remedy  for  that  terrible  disease,  the  African 
fever.^  I  would  go  into  the  parts  where  it  prevails  most,  and  try  to  dis- 
cover if  the  natives  have  a  remedy  for  it.  I  must  make  many  inquiries 
of  the  river  people  in  this  quarter.  What  an  unspeakable  mercy  it  is 
to  be  permitted  to  engage  in  this  most  holy  and  honorable  work !  What 
«n  infinity  of  lots  in  the  world  are  poor,  miserable,  and  degraded  com- 
pared with  mine  I  I  might  have  been  a  common  soldier,  a  day-laborer, 
a  factory  operative,  a  mechanic,  instead  of  a  missionary.  If  my  faculties 
had  been  left  to  run  riot  or  to  waste  as  those  of  so  many  young  men,  I 
should  now  have  been  used  up,  a  dotard,  as  many  of  my  school-fellows 
are.  I  am  respected  by  the  natives,  their  kind  expressions  often  make 
me  ashamed,  and  they  are  sincere.  So  much  deference  and  favor 
manifested  without  any  effort  on  my  part  to  secure  it  comes  from  the 
Author  of  every  good  gift.  I  acknowledge  the  mercies  of  the  great  God 
with  devout  and  reverential  gratitude." 

Dr.  Livingstone  had  declined  a  co:isiderate  proposal  that 
another  missionary  should  accompany  him,  and  deliber- 
ately resolved  to  go  this  great  journey  alone.  He  knew, 
in  fact,  that  except  Mr.  Moffat,  who  was  busy  with  his 
translation  of  the  Bible,  no  other  missionary  would  go 
with  him.^  But  in  the  absence  of  all  to  whom  he  could 
unburden  his  spirit,  we  find  him  more  freely  than  usual 
pouring  out  his  feelings  in  his  Journal,  and  it  is  but  an 
act  of  justice  to  himself  that  it  should  be  made  known  how 

>  Livingstone's  Remedy  for  African  fever.     See  Appendix  No.  II. 

•  Dr.  Moffat  informs  us  that  Livingstone's  desire  for  his  company  was  most 
intense,  and  that  he  pressed  him  in  such  a  way  as  would  have  been  irresistible, 
had  his  going  been  possible.  But  for  his  employment  in  translating,  Dr.  Mofiat 
would  have  gone  with  all  his  heart. 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  155 

his  thoughts  were  running,  with  so  bold  and  difficult  an 
undertaking  before  him : 

^^2^th September,  1852. — Am  I  on  my  way  to  die  in  Sebituane's  country? 
Have  I  seen  the  end  of  my  wife  and  children  ?  The  breaking  up  of  all 
my  connections  with  earth,  leaving  this  fair  and  beautiful  world,  and 
knowing  so  little  of  it?  I  am  only  learning  the  alphabet  of  it  yet,  and 
entering  on  an  untried  state  of  existence.  Following  Him  who  has 
entered  in  before  me  into  the  cloud,  the  veil,  the  Hades,  is  a  serious 
prospect.  Do  we  begin  again  in  our  new  existence  to  learn  much  bj 
experience,  or  have  we  full  powers?  My  soul,  whither  wilt  thou  emi- 
grate? Where  wilt  thou  lodge  the  first  night  after  leaving  this  body? 
Will  an  angel  soothe  thy  flutterings,  for  sadly  flurried  wilt  thou  be  in 
entering  upon  eternity  ?  Oh  1  if  Jesus  speak  one  word  of  peace,  that 
will  establish  in  thy  breast  an  everlasting  calm  1  0  Jesufl,  fill  me  with 
/by  love  now,  and  I  beseech  Thee,  accept  me,  and  use  me  a  little  for 
Thy  glory.  I  have  done  nothing  for  Thee  yet,  and  I  would  like  to  do 
something.  0  do,  do,  I  beseech  Thee,  accept  me  and  my  service,  and 
take  Thou  all  the  glory.     .     .     ." 

"  23c?  January^  1853. — I  think  much  of  my  poor  children.  ,  .  ," 
"  4ith  February^  1853. — ^I  am  spared  in  health,  while  all  the  company 
have  been  attacked  by  the  fever.  If  God  has  accepted  my  service,  then 
my  life  is  charmed  till  my  work  is  done.  And  though  I  pass  through 
many  dangers  unscathed  while  working  the  work  given  me  to  do,  when 
that  is  finished,  some  simple  thing  will  give  me  my  quietus.  Death  is 
a  glorious  event  to  one  going  to  Jesus.  Whither  does  the  soul  wing  its 
way?  What  does  it  see  first?  There  is  something  sublime  in  passing 
into  the  second  stage  of  our  immortal  lives  if  washed  from  our  sins. 
But,  ohl  to  be  consigned  to  ponder  over  all  our  sins  with  memories 
excited,  every  scene  of  our  lives  held  up  as  in  a  mirror  before  our  eyes, 
and  we  looking  at  them  and  waiting  for  the  day  of  judgment  1" 

"  Ylth  February. — It  is  not  the  encountering  of  difiiculties  and  dangers 
in  obedience  to  the  promptings  of  the  inward  spiritual  life,  which  con- 
stitutes tempting  of  God  and  Providence ;  but  the  acting  without  faith, 
proceeding  on  our  own  errands  with  no  previous  convictions  of  duty, 
and  no  prayer  for  aid  and  direction." 

"  22d  May. — I  will  place  no  value  on  anything  I  have  or  may  possess, 
except  in  relation  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  If  anything  will  advance 
the  interests  of  that  kingdom,  it  shall  be  given  away  or  kept,  only  as  by 
giving  or  keeping  of  it  I  shall  most  promote  the  glory  of  Him  to  whom 
I  owe  all  my  hopes  in  time  and  eternity.  May  grace  and  strength  sufiS- 
cient  to  enable  me  to  adhere  faithfully  to  this  resolution  be  imparted  to 
me,  so  that  in  truth,  not  in  name  only,  all  my  interests  and  those  of  mj 


166  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

children  may  be  identified  with  his  cause.  ...  I  will  try  and  re* 
member  always  to  approach  God  in  secret  with  as  much  reverence  in 
speech,  posture,  and  behavior  as  in  public.  Help  me.  Thou  who  knowest 
my  frame  and  pitiest  as  a  father  his  children." 

When  Livingstone  reached  the  Makololo,  a  change  had 
taken  place  in  the  government  of  the  tribe.  Ma-mochisane, 
the  daughter  of  Sebituane,  had  not  been  happy  in  her 
chiefdom,  and  had  found  it  difficult  to  get  along  with  the 
number  of  husbands  whom  her  dignity  as  chief  required 
her  to  maintain.  She  had  given  over  the  government  to 
her  brother  Sekeletu,  a  youth  of  eighteen,  who  was  gener- 
ally recognized,  though  not  without  some  reluctance,  by 
his  brother,  Mpepe.  Livingstone  could  not  have  foreseen 
how  Sekeletu  would  receive  him,  but  to  his  great  relief 
and  satisfaction  he  found  him  actuated  by  the  most  kindly 
feelings.  He  found  him,  boy  as  he  was,  full  of  vague 
expectations  of  benefits,  marvelous  and  miraculous,  which 
the  missionaries  were  to  bring.  It  was  Livingstone's  first 
work  to  disabuse  his  mind  of  these  expectations,  and  let 
him  understand  that  his  supreme  object  was  to  teach  them 
the  way  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ.  To  a  certain 
extent  Sekeletu  was  interested  in  this ; 

"  He  asked  many  sensible  questions  about  the  system  of  Christianity 
in  connection  with  the  putting  away  of  wives.  They  are  always  fur* 
nished  with  objections  sooner  than  with  the  information.  I  commended 
him  for  asking  me,  and  will  begin  a  course  of  instruction  to-morrow. 
He  fears  that  learning  to  read  will  change  his  heart,  and  make  him  put 
away  his  wives.  Much  depends  on  his  decision.  May  God  influence 
his  heart  to  decide  aright  I" 

Two  days  after  Livingstone  says  in  his  Journal : 

"  \st  June. — The  chief  presented  eight  large  and  three  small  tusks  this 
morning.  I  told  him  and  his  people  I  would  rather  see  them  trading 
than  giving  them  to  me.  They  replied  that  they  would  get  trade  with 
George  Fleming,  and  that,  too,  as  soon  as  he  was  well ;  but  these  they 
gave  to  their  father,  and  they  were  just  as  any  other  present.  They 
asked  after  the  gun-medicine,  believing  that  now  my  heart  would  be 
warm  enough  to  tell  them  anything,  but  I  could  not  tell  them  a  lie.     I 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  157 

oflfered  to  show  Sekel6tu  how  to  shoot,  and  that  was  all  the  medicine  I 
knew.  I  felt  as  if  I  should  have  been  more  pleased  had  George  been 
amassing  ivory  than  I.  Yet  this  may  be  an  indispensable  step  in  the 
progress  toward  opening  the  west.  I  must  have  funds ;  and  here  they 
come  pouring  in.  It  would  be  impossible  to  overlook  his  providence 
who  has  touehed  their  hearts.  I  have  used  no  undue  influence.  Indeed 
I  have  used  none  directly  for  the  purpose  Kindness  shown  has  been 
appreciated  here,  while  much  greater  kindness  shown  to  tribes  in  the 
south  has  resulted  in  a  belief  we  missionaries  must  be  fools.  I  do  thank 
my  God  sincerely  for  his  favor,  and  my  hearty  prayer  is  that  He  may 
continue  it,  and  make  whatever  use  He  pleases  of  me,  and  may  He  hav« 
mercy  on  this  people  I" 

Dr.  Livingstone  was  careful  to  guard  against  the  sup- 
position that  he  allowed  Sekeletu  to  enrich  him  without 
recompense,  and  in  his  Journal  he  sets  down  a  list  of  the 
various  articles  presented  by  himself  to  the  chief,  including 
three  goats,  some  fowls,  powder,  wire,  flints,  percussion-caps, 
an  umbrella  and  a  hat,  the  value  of  the  whole  being  £31, 
16s.  When  Sekeletu  knew  Dr.  Livingstone's  plans,  he 
undertook  that  he  should  be  provided  with  all  requisites 
for  his  journey.  But  he  was  most  anxious  to  retain  him, 
and  for  some  time  would  not  let  him  go.  Livingstone  had 
fascinated  him.  Sekeletu  said  that  he  had  found  a  new 
father.  And  Livingstone  pondered  the  possibility  of  estab- 
lishing a  station  here.  But  the  fever,  the  fever !  could  he 
bring  his  family?  He  must  pass  on  and  look  for  a  healthier 
spot.  His  desire  was  to  proceed  to  the  country  of  the 
Barotse.  At  length,  on  the  16th  June,  Sekeletu  gives  his 
answer : 

"The  chief  has  acceded  to  my  request  to  proceed  to  Barotse  and  see 
the  country.  I  told  him  my  heart  was  sore,  because  having  left  my 
family  to  explore  his  land,  and,  if  possible,  find  a  suitable  location  for  a 
mission,  I  could  not  succeed,  because  detained  by  him  here.  He  says 
he  will  take  me  with  him.  He  does  not  like  to  part  with  me  at  all.  He 
is  obliged  to  consult  with  those  who  gave  their  opinion  against  my 
leaving.  But  it  is  certain  I  am  permitted  to  go.  Thanks  be  to  God  for 
influencing  their  hearts  I" 

Before  we  set  out  with  *iie  chief  on  this  journey,  it  will 
14 


158  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

be  well  to  give  a  few  extracts  from  Livingstone's  Journal, 
showing  how  unwearied  were  his  efforts  to  teach  the 
people : 

*' Banks  of  Chohey  Sunday,  May  Ibth. — Preached  twice  to  about  sixty 
people.  Very  attentive.  It  is  only  divine  power  which,  can  enlighten 
dark  minds  as  these.  .  .  .  The  people  seem  to  receive  ideas  on 
divine  subjects  slowly.  They  listen,  but  never  suppose  that  the  truths 
must  become  embodied  in  actual  life.  They  will  wait  until  the  chief 
becomes  a  Christian,  and  if  he  believes,  then  they  refuse  to  follow, — as 
was  the  case  among  the  Bakwains.  Procrastination  seems  as  powerful 
an  instrument  of  deception  here  as  elsewhere." 

"  Sunday,  \2th  June* — A  good  and  very  attentive  audience.  We  in- 
troduce entirely  new  motives,  and  were  these  not  perfectly  adapted  for 
the  human  mind  and  heart  by  their  divine  Author,  we  should  have  no 
success." 

^^  Sunday,  19ih  June. — A  good  and  attentive  audience,  but  immediately 
after  the  service  I  went  to  see  a  sick  man,  and  when  I  returned  toward 
the  Kotla,  I  found  the  chief  had  retired  into  a  hut  to  drink  beer  j  and, 
as  the  custom  is,  about  forty  men  were  standing  singing  to  him,  or,  in 
•ther  words,  begging  beer  by  that  means.  A  minister  who  had  not 
Bcen  so  much  pioneer  service  as  I  have  done  would  have  been  shocked 
to  see  so  little  effect  produced  by  an  earnest  discourse  concerning  the 
future  judgment,  but  time  must  be  given  to  allow  the  truth  to  sink  into 
the  dark  mind,  and  produce  its  effect.  The  earth  shall  be  filled  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord — that  is  enough.  We  can  afford 
to  work  in  faith,  for  Omnipotence  is  pledged  to  fulfill  the  promise.  The 
great  mountains  become  a  plain  before  the  Almighty  arm.  The  ©oor 
Bushman,  the  most  degraded  of  all  Adam's  family,  shall  see  his  gJory, 
and  the  dwellers  in  the  wilderness  shall  bow  before  Him.  The  ob- 
etacles  to  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  are  mighty,  but  come  it  wiU  for 

all  that : 

«<Then  let  us  pray  that  come  it  may, 
As  comQ  it  will  for  a'  that, 
That  man  to  man  the  world  o'er 
Shall  brothers  be  for  a'  that.* 

"The  hard  and  cold  unbelief  which  distinguished  the  last  century, 
and  which  is  still  aped  by  would-be  philosophers  in  the  present,  would 
sneer  at  our  faith,  and  call  it  superstition,  enthusiasm,  etc.  But  were 
we  believers  in  human  progress  and  no  more,  there  must  be  a  glorious 
future  for  our  world.  Our  dreams  must  come  true,  even  though  they 
«>e  no  more  than  dreams.     The  world  is  rolling  on  to  the  golden  age. 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTl.  159 

.  ,  •  Discoveries  and  inventions  are  cumulative.  Another  century 
must  present  a  totally  different  aspect  from  the  present.  And  when  we 
view  the  state  of  the  world  and  its  advancing  energies,  in  the  light 
afforded  by  childlike,  or  call  it  childish,  faith,  we  see  the  earth  filling 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God, — ay,  all  nations  seeing  his 
glory  and  bowing  before  Him  whose  right  it  is  to  reign.  Our  work  and 
its  fruits  are  cumulative.  We  work  toward  another  state  of  things. 
Future  missionaries  will  be  rewarded  by  conversions  for  every  sermon. 
We  are  their  pioneers  and  helpers.  Let  them  not  forget  the  watchmen 
of  the  night — us,  who  worked  when  all  was  gloom,  and  no  evidence  of 
success  in  the  way  of  conversion  cheered  our  paths.  They  will  doubt- 
less have  more  light  than  we,  but  we  served  our  Master  earnestly,  and 
proclaimed  the  same  gospel  as  they  will  do." 

Of  the  services  which  Livingstone  held  with  the  people, 
we  have  the  following  picture ; 

"When  I  stand  up,  all  the  women  and  children  draw  near,  and, 
having  ordered  silence,  I  explain  the  plan  of  salvation,  the  goodness  of 
God  in  sending  his  Son  to  die,  the  confirmatiou  of  his  mission  by  mira- 
cles, the  last  judgment  or  future  state,  the  evil  of  sin,  God's  commands 
respecting  it,  etc.  j  always  choosing  one  subject  only  for  an  address,  and 
taking  care  to  make  it  short  and  plain,  and  applicable  to  them.  This 
address  is  listened  to  with  great  attention  by  most  of  the  audience.  A 
short  prayer  concludes  the  service,  all  kneeling  down,  and  remaining  so 
till  told  to  rise.  At  first  we  have  to  enjoin  on  the  women  who  have 
children  to  remain  sitting,  for  when  they  kneel,  they  squeeze  their 
children,  and  a  simultaneous  skirl  is  set  up  by  the  whole  troop  of 
youngsters,  who  make  the  prayer  inaudible." 

When  Livingstone  and  Sekeletu  had  gone  about  sixty 
miles  on  the  way  to  the  Barotse,  they  encountered  Mpepe, 
Sekeletu's  half-brother  and  secret  rival.  It  turned  out  that 
Mpepe  had  a  secret  plan  for  killing  Sekeletu,  and  that 
three  times  on  the  day  of  their  meeting  that  plan  was  frus- 
trated by  apparently  accidental  causes.  On  one  of  these 
occasions,  Livingstone,  by  covering  Sekeletu,  prevented 
him  from  being  speared.  Mpepe's  treachery  becoming 
known,  he  was  arrested  by  Sekeletu's  people,  and  promptly 
put  to  death.  The  episode  was  not  agreeable,  but  it  illus- 
trated savage  life.    It  turned  out  that  Mpepe  favored  the 


160  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

slave-trade,  and  was  closely  engaged  with  certain  Portu- 
guese traders  in  intrigues  for  establishing  and  extending  it 
Had  Sekeletu  been  killed,  Livingstone's  enterprise  would 
certainly  have  been  put  an  end  to,  and  very  probably  like- 
wise Livingstone  himself. 

The  party,  numbering  about  one  hundred  and  sixty, 
proceeded  up  the  beautiful  river  which  on  his  former  visit 
Livingstone  had  first  known  as  the  Sesheke,  but  which  was 
called  by  the  Barotse  the  Liambai  or  Leeambye.  The 
term  means  "the  large  river,"  and  Luambeji,  Luambesi, 
Ambezi,  Yimbezi,  and  Zambezi  are  names  applied  to  it  at 
different  parts  of  its  course.  In  the  progress  of  their  journey 
they  came  to  the  town  of  the  father  of  Mpepe,  where,  most 
unexpectedly,  Livingstone  encountered  a  horrible  scene. 
Mpepe's  father  and  another  headman  were  known  to  have 
favored  the  plan  for  the  murder  of  Sekeletu,  and  were 
therefore  objects  of  fear  to  the  latter.  "When  all  were  met, 
and  Mpepe's  father  was  questioned  why  he  did  not  stop  his 
son's  proceedings,  Sekeletu  suddenly  sprang  to  his  feet  and 
gave  the  two  men  into  custody.  All  had  been  planned 
beforehand.  Forthwith  they  were  led  away,  surrounded 
by  Sekeletu's  warriors,  all  dream  of  opposition  on  their 
part  being  as  useless  as  interference  would  have  been  on 
Livingstone's.  Before  his  eyes  he  saw  them  hewn  to  pieces 
with  axes,  and  cast  into  the  river  to  be  devoured  by  the 
alligators.  Within  two  hours  of  their  arrival  the  whole 
party  had  left  the  scene  of  this  shocking  tragedy,  Living- 
stone being  so  horrified  that  he  could  not  remain.  He 
did  his  best  to  show  the  sin  of  blood-guiltiness,  and  bring 
before  the  people  the  scene  of  the  Last  Judgment,  which 
was  the  only  thing  that  seemed  to  make  any  impression. 

Farther  on  his  way  he  had  an  interview  with  Ma-mochi- 
sane,  the  daughter  of  Sebituane  who  had  resigned  in  favor 
of  Sekeletu.  He  was  the  first  white  man  she  had  ever  seen. 
The  interview  was  pleasing  and  not  without  touches  of 
womanly  character ;  the  poor  woman  had  felt  an  embarras 


S^iidM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  161 

de  richesses  in  the  matter  of  husbands,  and  was  very  un- 
comfortable when  married  women  complained  of  her 
taking  their  spouses  from  them.  Her  soul  recoiled  from 
the  business ;  she  wished  to  have  a  husband  of  her  owa 
and  to  be  like  other  women. 

So  anxious  was  Livingstone  to  find  a  healthy  locality^ 
that,  leaving  Sekeletu,  he  proceeded  to  the  farthest  limit 
of  the  Barotse  country,  but  no  healthy  place  could  be  found. 
It  is  plain,  however,  that  in  spite  of  all  risk,  and  much  as> 
he  suffered  from  the  fever,  he  was  planning,  if  no  better 
place  could  be  found,  to  return  himself  to  Linyanti  and  be 
the  Makololo  missionary.  Not  just  immediately,  however. 
Having  failed  in  the  first  object  of  his  journey — to  find  a 
healthy  locality — he  was  resolved  to  follow  out  the  second, 
and  endeavor  to  discover  a  highway  to  the  sea.  First  he 
would  try  the  west  coast,  and  the  point  for  which  he  would 
make  was  St.  Paul  de  Loanda.  He  might  have  found  a 
nearer  way,  but  a  Portuguese  trader  whom  he  had  met, 
and  from  whom  he  had  received  kindness,  was  going  by 
that  route  to  St.  Philip  de  Benguela.  The  trader  was  im- 
plicated in  the  slave-trade,  and  Livingstone  knew  what  a 
disadvantage  it  would  be  either  to  accompany  or  to  follow 
him.  He  therefore  returned  to  Linyanti ;  and  there  began 
preparations  for  the  journey  to  Loanda  on  the  coast. 

Duri'Qg  the  time  thus  spent  in  the  ^Barotse  country, 
Livingstone  saw  heathenism  in  its  most  unadulterated 
form.  It  was  a  painful,  loathsome,  and  horrible  spectacle. 
His  views  of  the  Fall  and  of  the  corruption  of  human 
nature  were  certainly  not  lightened  by  the  sight.  In  his 
Journal  he  is  constantly  letting  fall  expressions  of  weari- 
ness at  the  noise,  the  excitement,  the  wild  savage  dancing, 
the  heartless  cruelty,  the  utter  disregard  of  feelings,  the 
destruction  of  children,  the  drudgery  of  the  old  people,  the 
atrocious  murders  with  which  he  was  in  contact.  Occa- 
sionally he  would  think  of  other  scenes  of  travel ;  if  a  friend, 
for  example,  were  going  to  Palestine,  he  would  say  how 


162  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

gladly  he  would  kiss  the  dust  that  had  been  trod  by  the 
Man  of  Sorrows.  One  day  a  poor  girl  comes  hungry  and 
naked  to  the  wagons,  and  is  relieved  from  time  to  time ; 
then  disappears  to  die  in  the  woods  of  starvation  or  be  torn 
in  pieces  by  the  hyenas.  Another  day,  as  he  is  preaching, 
a  boy,  walking  along  with  his  mother,  is  suddenly  seized 
by  a  man,  utters  a  shriek  as  if  his  heart  had  burst,  and 
becomes,  as  Livingstone  finds,  a  hopeless  slave.  Another 
time,  the  sickening  sight  is  a  line  of  slaves  attached  by  a 
chain.    That  chain  haunts  and  harrows  him. 

Amid  all  his  difficulties  he  patiently  pursued  his  work 
as  missionary.  Twice  every  Sunday  he  preached,  usually 
to  good  audiences,  the  number  rising  on  occasions  so  high 
as  a  thousand.  It  was  a  great  work  to  sow  the  good  seed 
so  widely,  where  no  Christian  man  had  ever  been,  pro- 
claiming every  Lord's  Day  to  fresh  ears  the  message  of 
Divine  love.  Sometimes  he  was  in  great  hopes  that  a  true 
impression  had  been  made.  But  usually,  whenever  the 
service  was  over,  the  wild  savage  dance  with  all  its  demon 
noises  succeeded,  and  the  missionary  could  but  look  on 
and  sigh.  So  ready  was  he  for  labor  that  when  he  could 
get  any  willing  to  learn,  he  commenced  teaching  them  the 
alphabet.  But  he  was  continually  met  by  the  notion  that 
his  religion  was  a  religion  of  medicines,  and  that  all  the 
good  it  could  do  was  by  charms.  Intellectual  culture 
seemed  indispensable  to  dissipate  this  inveterate  supersti- 
tion regarding  Christian  influence. 

A  few  extracts  from  his  Journal  in  the  Barotse  country 
will  more  vividly  exhibit  his  state  of  mind : 

"27<A  August,  1853. — The  more  intimately  I  become  acquainted  with 
barbarians,  the  more  disgusting  does  heathenism  become.  It  is  incon- 
ceivably vile.  They  are  always  boasting  of  their  fierceness,  yet  dare  not 
visit  another  tribe  for  fear  of  being  killed.  They  never  visit  anywhere 
but  for  the  purpose  of  plunder  and  oppression.  They  never  go  anywhere 
but  with  a  club  or  spear  in  hand.  It  is  lamentable  to  see  those  who 
might  be  children  of  God,  dwelling  in  peace  and  love,  so  utterly  the 
children  of  the  devil,  dwelling  in  fear  and  ooutinual  irritation.    They 


FROM  THE  GAPE  TO  LtNYANTL  163 

bestow  honors  and  flattering  titles  on  me  in  confusing  profusion.  All 
from  the  least  to  the  greatest  call  me  Father,  Lord,  etc.,  and  bestow 
food  without  recompense,  out  of  pure  kindness.  They  need  a  healer. 
May  God  enable  me  to  be  such  to  them.     .     ,     . 

"  Z\st  August. — The  slave-trade  seems  pushed  into  the  very  centre  of 
the  continent  from  both  sides.     It  must  be  profitable.     .     .     . 

^^  September  25,  Sunday. — A  quiet  audience  to-day.  The  seed  being 
sown,  the  least  of  all  seeds  now,  but  it  will  grow  a  mighty  tree.  It  is 
as  it  were  a  small  stone  cut  out  of  a  mountain,  but  it  will  fill  the  whole 
earth.  He  that  belie veth  shall  not  make  haste.  Surely  if  God  can 
bear  with  hardened  impenitent  sinners  for  thirty,  forty,  or  fifty  years, 
waiting  to  be  gracious,  we  may  take  it  for  granted  that  his  is  the  best 
way.  He  could  destroy  his  enemies,  but  He  waits  to  be  gracious.  To 
become  irritated  with  their  stubbornness  and  hardness  of  heart  is 
ungodlike.     .     .     . 

"  12>th  October. — Missionaries  ought  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  the  beau- 
tiful. We  are  necessarily  compelled  to  contemplate  much  moral  impurity 
and  degradation.  We  are  so  often  doomed  to  disappointment.  We  are 
apt  to  become  either  callous  or  melancholy,  or,  if  preserved  from  these, 
the  constant  strain  on  the  sensibilities  is  likely  to  injure  the  bodily 
health.  On  this  account  it  seems  necessary  to  cultivate  that  faculty  for 
the  gratification  of  which  God  has  made  such  universal  provision.  See 
the  green  earth  and  blue  sky,  the  lofty  mountain  and  the  verdant  valley, 
the  glorious  orbs  of  day  and  night,  and  the  starry  canopy  with  all  their 
celestial  splendor,  the  graceful  flowers  so  chaste  in  form  and  perfect  in 
coloring.  The  various  forms  of  animated  life  present  to  him  whose 
heart  is  at  peace  with  God  through  the  blood  of  his  Son  an  indescribable 
charnu  He  sees  in  the  calm  beauties  of  nature  such  abundant  provis- 
ion for  the  welfare  of  humanity  and  animate  existence.  There  appears 
on  the  quiet  repose  of  earth's  scenery  the  benignant  smile  of  a  Father's 
love.  The  sciences  exhibit  such  wonderful  intelligence  and  design  in 
all  their  various  ramifications,  some  time  ought  to  be  devoted  to  them 
before  engaging  in  missionary  work.  The  heart  may  often  be  cheered 
by  observing  the  operation  of  an  ever-present  intelligence,  and  we  may 
feel  that  we  are  leaning  on  his  bosom  while  living  in  a  world  clothed  in 
beauty,  and  robed  with  the  glorious  perfections  of  its  maker  and  pre- 
server. We  must  feel  that  there  is  a  Governor  among  the  nations  who 
will  bring  all  his  plans  with  respect  to  our  human  family  to  a  glorious 
consummation.  He  who  stays  his  mind  on  his  ever-present,  ever-ener- 
getic God,  will  not  fret  himself  because  of  evil-doers.  He  that  believeth 
ehall  not  make  haste." 

'•26^A  October. — I  have  not  yet  met  with  a  beautiful  woman  among 
the  black  people,  and  I  have  seen  many  thousands  in  a  great  variety 


164  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

of  tribes.  I  have  seen  a  few  who  might  be  called  passable,  but  none  at 
all  to  be  compared  to  what  one  may  meet  among  English  servant-girls. 
Some  beauties  are  said  to  be  found  among  the  Caffres,  but  among  the 
people  I  have  seen  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  European  being  captivated 
with  them.  The  whole  of  my  experience  goes  toward  proving  that 
civilization  alone  produces  beauty,  and  exposure  to  the  weather  and 
other  vicissitudes  tend  to  the  production  of  deformation  and  ugli- 
ness.    ... 

*'  28th  October. — The  conduct  of  the  people  whom  we  have  brought 
from  Kuruman  shows  that  no  amount  of  preaching  or  instruction  will 
insure  real  piety.  .  .  .  The  old  superstitions  cannot  be  driven  out  of 
their  minds  by  faith  implanted  by  preaching.  They  have  not  vanished 
in  either  England  or  Scotland  yet,  after  the  lapse  of  centuries  of  preach- 
ing. Kuruman,  the  entire  population  of  which  amounted  in  1853  to 
638  souls,  enjoys  and  has  enjoyed  the  labors  of  at  least  two  mission- 
aries,— four  sermons,  two  prayer-meetings,  infant  schools,  adult  schools, 
sewing  schools,  classes,  books,  etc.,  and  the  amount  of  visible  success  is 
very  gratifying,  a  remarkable  change  indeed  from  the  former  state  of 
these  people.  Yet  the  dregs  of  heathenism  still  cleave  fast  to  the  minds 
of  the  majority.  They  have  settled  deep  down  into  their  souls,  and  one 
century  will  not  be  sufficient  to  elevate  them  to  the  rank  of  Christians 
in  Britain.  The  double  influence  of  the  spirit  of  commerce  and  the 
gospel  of  Christ  has  given  an  impulse  to  the  civilization  of  men.  The 
circulation  of  ideas  and  commodities  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  the 
discovery  of  the  gold  regions,  have  given  enhanced  rapidity  to  com- 
merce in  other  countries,  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge.  But  what  for 
Africa  ?  God  will  do  something  else  for  it  j  something  just  as  wonderful 
and  unexpected  as  the  discovery  of  gold." 

It  needs  not  to  be  said  that  his  thoughts  were  very  often 
fnth  his  wife  and  children.  A  tender  letter  to  the  four 
little  ones  shows  that  though  seme  of  them  might  be 
beginning  to  forget  him,  their  names  were  written  im- 
perishably  on  his  heart : 

"SeJceletu''s  Town,  Linyanti,  2d  October, — My  dear  Egbert,  Agnes, 
AND  Thomas  and  Oswell, — Here  is  another  little  letter  for  you  all.  I 
should  like  to  see  you  much  more  than  write  to  you,  and  speak  with  my 
tongue  rather  than  with  my  pen ;  but  we  are  far  from  each  other — very, 
very  far.  Here  are  Seipone,  and  Meriye  and  others  who  saw  you  as  the 
first  white  children  they  ever  looked  at.  Meriye  came  the  other  day 
and  brought  a  round  basket  for  Nannie.  She  made  it  of  the  leaves  of 
the  palmyra.     Others  put  me  in  mind  of  you  all  by  calling  me  Rananee, 


FROM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  165 

and  Karobert,  and  there  is  a  little  Thomas  in  the  town,  and  when  I 
think  of  you  I  remember,  though  I  am  far  off,  Jesus,  our  good  and 
gracious  Jesus,  is  ever  near  both  you  and  me,  and  then  I  pray  to  Him 
to  bless  you  and  make  you  good. 

"He  is  ever  near.  Kemember  this  if  you  feel  angry  or  naughty. 
Jesus  is  near  you,  and  sees  you,  and  He  is  so  good  and  kind.  When 
He  was  among  men,  those  who  heard  Him  speak  said,  'Never  man 
spake  like  this  man,'  and  we  now  say,  '  Never  did  man  love  like  Him.' 
You  see  little  Zouga  is  carried  on  mamma's  bosom.  You  are  taken 
care  of  by  Jesus  with  as  much  care  as  mamma  takes  of  Zouga.  He 
is  always  watching  you  and  keeping  you  in  safety.  It  is  very  bad  to 
sin,  to  do  any  naughty  things,  or  speak  angry  or  naughty  words  befort 
Him. 

"My  dear  children,  take  Him  as  your  Guide,  your  Helper,  your 
Friend,  and  Saviour  through  life.  Whatever  you  are  troubled  about 
ask  Him  to  keep  you.  Our  G-od  is  good.  We  thank  Him  that  we 
have  such  a  Saviour  and  Friend  as  He  is.  Now  you  are  little,  but  you 
will  not  always  be  so,  hence  you  must  learn  to  read  and  write  and 
work.  All  clever  men  can  both  read  and  write,  and  Jesus  needs  clever 
men  to  do  his  work.  Would  you  not  like  to  work  for  Him  among 
men?  Jesus  is  wishing  to  send  his  gospel  to  all  nations,  and  He  needs 
clever  men  to  do  this.  Would  you  like  to  serve  Him  ?  Well,  you  must 
learn  now,  and  not  get  tired  learning.  After  some  time  you  will  like 
learning  better  than  playing,  but  you  must  play,  too,  in  order  to  make 
your  bodies  strong  and  be  able  to  serve  Jesus. 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  go  to  the  academy.  I  hope  you  are 
learning  fast.  Don't  speak  Scotch.  It  is  not  so  pretty  as  English.  Is 
the  Tau  learning  to  read  with  mamma?  I  hope  you  are  all  kind  to 
mamma.  I  saw  a  poor  woman  in  a  chain  with  many  others,  up  at  the 
Barotse.  She  had  a  little  child,  and  both  she  and  her  child  were  very 
thin.  See  how  kind  Jesus  was  to  you.  No  one  can  put  you  in  chains 
unless  you  become  bad.  If,  however,  you  learn  bad  ways,  beginning 
only  by  saying  bad  words  or  doing  little  bad  things,  Satan  will  have 
you  in  the  chains  of  sin,  and  you  will  be  hurried  on  in  his  bad  ways  till 
you  are  put  into  the  dreadful  place  which  God  hath  prepared  for  him 
and  all  who  are  like  him.  Pray  to  Jesus  to  deliver  you  from  sin,  give 
you  new  hearts,  and  make  you  his  children.  Kiss  Zouga,  mamma, 
and  each  other  for  me. — Your  ever  affectionate  father, 

"  D.  Livingston." 

A  letter  to  his  father  and  other  relations  at  Hamilton, 
80th  September,  1853,  is  of  a  somewhat  apologetic  and 
explanatory  cast.    Some  of  the  friends  had  the  notion  tb^t 


166  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

he  should  have  settled  somewhere,  "  preaching  the  simple 
gospel/'  and  converting  people  by  every  sermon : 

"  You  see  what  they  make  of  the  gospel,  and  my  conversation  on  it, 
in  which  my  inmost  heart  yearned  for  their  conversion.  Many  now 
think  Jesus  and  Sebituane  very  much  the  same  eort  of  person.  I  was 
prevented  by  fever  and  other  matters  from  at  once  following  up  the 
glorious  object  of  this  journey :  viz.,  while  preaching  the  gospel  beyond 
every  other  man's  line  of  things  made  ready  to  our  hands,  to  discover  a 
healthy  location  for  a  mission,  and  I  determined  to  improve  the  time  by 
teaching  to  read.  This  produced  profound  deliberation  and  lengthened 
palavers,  and  at  length  the  chief  told  me  that  he  feared  learning  to  read 
would  change  his  heart  and  make  him  content  with  one  wife  like 
Sechele.  He  has  four.  It  was  in  vain  I  urged  that  the  change  con- 
templated made  the  affair  as  voluntary  as  if  he  would  now  change  his 
mind  from  four  to  thirty,  as  his  father  had.  He  could  not  realize  the 
change  that  would  give  relish  to  any  other  system  than  the  present.  He 
felt  as  the  man  who  is  mentioned  by  Series  as  saying  he  would  not  like 
to  go  to  heaven  to  be  employed  for  ever  singing  and  praising  on  a  bare 
cloud  without  anything  to  eat  or  drink.     .     .     . 

"  The  conversion  of  a  few,  however  valuable  their  souls  may  be, 
cannot  be  put  into  the  scale  against  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  spread 
over  the  whole  country.  In  this  I  do  and  will  exult.  As  in  India,  we 
are  doomed  to  perpetual  disappointment  j  but  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
spreads  over  the  masses.  We  are  like  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness. 
We  prepare  the  way  for  a  glorious  future  in  which  missionaries  telling 
the  same  tale  of  love  will  convert  by  every  sermon.  I  am  trying  now 
to  establish  the  Lord's  kingdom  in  a  region  wider  by  far  than  Scotland. 
Fever  seems  to  forbid;  but  I  shall  work  for  the  glory  of  Christ's  kingdom 
— fever  or  no  fever.  All  the  intelligent  men  who  direct  our  society  and 
understand  the  nature  of  my  movements  support  me  warmly.  A  few, 
I  understand,  in  Africa,  in  writing  home,  have  styled  my  efforts  as 
*  wanderings.'  The  very  word  contains  a  lie  coiled  like  a  serpent  in  its 
bosom.  It  means  traveling  without  an  object,  or  uselessly.  I  am  now 
performing  the  duty  of  writing  you.  If  this  were  termed  'dawdling,'  it 
would  be  as  true  as  the  other.  ...  I  have  actually  seen  letters  to 
the  Directors  in  which  I  am  gravely  charged  with  holding  the  views  of 
the  Plymouth  Brethren,  So  very  sure  am  I  that  I  am  in  the  path 
which  God's  Providence  has  pointed  out,  as  that  by  which  Christ's 
kingdom  is  to  be  promoted,  that  if  the  Society  should  object,  I  would 
consider  it  my  duty  to  withdraw  from  it.  .     . 

"P.^y. — My  throat  became  well  during  the  long  silence  of  traveling 
across  the  desert.  It  plagues  again  now  that  I  am  preaching  in  a  moist 
climate." 


FEOM  THE  CAPE  TO  LINYANTL  167 

Dr.  Livingstone  now  began  his  preparations  for  the 
journey  from  Linyanti  to  Loanda.  Sekeletu  was  kind  and 
generous.  The  road  was  impracticable  for  wagons,  and 
the  native  trader,  George  Fleming,  returned  to  Kuruman. 
The  Kuruman  guides  had  not  done  well,  so  that  Living- 
stone resolved  to  send  them  back,  and  to  get  Makololo 
men  instead.  Here  is  the  record  of  his  last  Sunday  at 
Linyanti : 

"6^A  Nov.y  1853. — Large  audience.  Kuruman  people  don't  attend. 
if  it  is  a  fashion  to  be  church-going,  many  are  drawn  into  its  observance. 
But  placed  in  other  circumstances,  the  true  character  comes  out.  This 
is  the  case  with  many  Scotchmen.  May  God  so  imbue  my  mind  with 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  that  in  all  circumstances  I  may  show  my 
Christian  character  I  Had  a  long  conversation  with  Motlube,  chiefly 
on  a  charm  for  defending  the  town  or  for  gun  medicine.  They  think  I 
know  it  but  will  not  impart  the  secret  to  them.  I  used  every  form  of 
expression  to  undeceive  him,  but  to  little  purpose.  Their  belief  in 
medicine  which  will  enable  them  to  shoot  well  is  very  strong,  and 
simple  trust  in  an  unseen  Saviour  to  defend  them  against  such  enemies 
as  the  Matebele  is  too  simple  for  them.  I  asked  if  a  little  charcoal 
eewed  up  in  a  bag  were  a  more  feasible  protector  than  He  who  made 
all  things,  and  told  them  that  one  day  they  would  laugh  heartily  at 
their  own  follies  in  bothering  me  so  much  for  gun  medicine.  A  man 
who  has  never  had  to  do  with  a  raw  heathen  tribe  has  yet  to  learn  the 
Missionary  A  B  C." 

On  the  8th  he  writes : 

**  Our  intentions  are  to  go  up  the  Leeba  till  we  reach  the  falls,  then 
send  back  the  canoe  and  proceed  in  the  country  beyond  as  best  we  can. 
Matiamvo  is  far  beyond,  but  the  Cassantse  (probably  Cassange)  live  on 
the  west  of  the  river.  May  Grod  in  mercy  permit  me  to  do  something 
for  the  cause  of  Christ  in  these  dark  places  of  the  earth !  May  He 
accept  my  children  for  his  service,  and  sanctify  them  for  it !  My  bless- 
ing on  my  wife.  May  God  comfort  herl  If  my  watch  comes  back 
after  I  am  cut  off,  it  belongs  to  Agnes.  If  my  sextant,  it  is  Robert's. 
The  Paris  medal  to  Thomas.  Double-barreled  gun  to  Zouga.  Be  a 
Father  to  the  fatherless,  and  a  Husband  to  the  widow,  for  Jesus'  sake." 

The  probability  of  his  falling  was  full  in  his  view.  But 
the  thought  was  ever  in  his  mind,  and  ever  finding  expres- 
sion in  letters  both  to  the  Missionary  and  the  Geographical 


168  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Societies,  and  to  all  his  friends, — "  Can  the  love  of  Christ 
not  carry  the  missionary  where  the  slave-trade  carries  the 
trader?"  His  wagon  and  goods  were  left  with  Sekeletu, 
and  also  the  Journal  from  which  these  extracts  are  taken.'^ 
It  was  well  for  him  that  his  conviction  of  duty  was  clear 
as  noonday.     A  year  after,  he  wrote  to  his  father-in-law : 

"  I  had  fully  made  up  my  mind  as  to  the  path  of  duty  before  starting. 
I  wrote  to  my  brother-in-law,  Eobert  Moffat:  *I  shall  open  up  a  path 
into  the  interior,  or  perish.'  I  never  have  had  the  shadow  of  a  shade 
of  doubt  as  to  the  propriety  of  my  course,  and  wish  only  that  my  exer- 
tions may  be  honored  so  far  that  the  gospel  may  be  preached  and 
believed  in  all  this  dark  region." 

*  This  Journal  is  mentioned  in  the  Missionary  Travels  as  having  been  lost 
(p.  229).  It  was  afterward  recovered.  It  contains,  among  other  things,  some 
important  notes  on  Natural  History. 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA.  169 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA. 
A.D.  1853-1854. 

Difficulties  and  hardships  of  journey — His  traveling  kit — Four  books — Hi« 
Journal — Mode  of  traveling — Beauty  of  country — Repulsiveness  of  the 
people — Their  religious  belief — The  negro — Preaching — The  magic-lantern — 
Loneliness  of  feeling — Slave-trade — Management  of  the  natives — Danger 
from  Chiboque — from  another  chief — Livingstone  ill  of  fever — At  the  Quango 
— Attachment  of  followers — "  The  good  time  coming  " — Portuguese  settle- 
ments— Great  kindness  of  the  Portuguese — Arrives  at  Loanda — Received  by 
Mr.  Gabriel — His  great  friendship — No  letters — News  through  Mr.  Gabriel 
— Livingstone  becomes  aquainted  with  naval  officers — Resolves  to  go  back  to 
Linyanti  and  make  for  East  Coast — Letter  to  his  wife — Correspondence  with 
Mr.  Maclear — Accuracy  of  his  observations — Sir  John  Herschel — Geographi- 
cal Society  award  their  gold  metal — Remarks  of  Lord  EUesmere. 

The  journey  from  Linyanti  to  Loanda  occupied  from  the 
11th  November,  1853,  to  31st  May,  1854.  It  was  in  many 
ways  the  most  difficult  and  dangerous  that  Livingstone  had 
yet  performed,  and  it  drew  out  in  a  very  wonderful  manner 
the  rare  combination  of  qualities  that  fitted  him  for  his 
work.  The  route  had  never  been  traversed,  so  far  as  any 
trustworthy  tradition  went,  by  any  European.  With  the 
exception  of  a  few  of  Sekeletu's  tusks,  the  oxen  needed  for 
carrying,  and  a  trifling  amount  of  coffee,  cloth,  beads,  etc., 
Livingstone  had  neither  stores  of  food  for  his  party,  nor 
presents  with  which  to  propitiate  the  countless  tribes  of 
rapacious  and  suspicious  savages  that  lined  his  path.  The 
Barotse  men  who  accompanied  him,  usually  called  the 
"  Makololo,"  though  on  the  whole  faithful  and  patient,  "  the 
best  that  ever  accompanied  me,"  were  a  burden  in  one 
sense,  as  much  as  a  help  in   another;   chicken-hearted. 


170  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

ready  to  succumb  to  every  trouble,  and  to  be  cowed  by 
any  chief  that  wore  a  threatening  face.  Worse  if  possible, 
Livingstone  himself  was  in  wretched  health.  During  this 
part  of  the  journey  he  had  constant  attacks  of  intermittent 
fever,^  accompanied  in  the  latter  stages  of  the  road  with 
dysentery  of  the  most  distressing  kind.  In  the  intervals 
of  fever  he  was  often  depressed  alike  in  body  and  in  mind. 
Often  the  party  were  destitute  of  food  of  any  sort,  and  never 
had  they  food  suitable  for  a  fever-stricken  invalid.  The 
vexations  he  encountered  were  of  no  common  kind:  at 
starting,  the  greater  part  of  his  medicines  was  stolen,  much 
though  he  needed  them ;  in  the  course  of  the  journey,  his 
pontoon  was  left  behind;  at  one  time,  while  he  was  under 
the  influence  of  fever,  his  riding-ox  threw  him,  and  he  fell 
heavily  on  his  head;  at  another,  while  crossing  a  river,  the 
ox  tossed  him  into  the  water;  the  heavy  rains,  and  the 
necessity  of  wading  through  streams  three  or  four  times  a 
day,  kept  him  almost  constantly  wet;  and  occasionally,  to 
vary  the  annoyance,  mosquitos  would  assail  him  as  fiercely 
as  if  they  had  been  waging  a  war  of  extermination.  The 
most  critical  moments  of  peril,  demanding  the  utmost  cool- 
ness and  most  dauntless  courage,  would  sometimes  occur 
during  the  stage  of  depression  after  fever;  it  was  then  he 
had  to  extricate  himself  from  savage  warriors,  who  vowed 
that  he  must  go  back,  unless  he  gave  them  an  ox,  a  gun, 
or  a  man.  The  ox  he  could  ill  spare,  the  gun  not  at  all, 
and  as  for  giving  the  last — a  man — to  make  a  slave  of,  he 
would  sooner  die.  At  the  best,  he  was  a  poor  ragged  skeleton 
when  he  reached  those  who  had  hearts  to  feel  for  him  and 
hands  to  help  him.  Had  he  not  been  a  prodigy  of  patience, 
faith,  and  courage,  had  he  not  known  where  to  find  help  in 
all  time  of  his  tribulation,  he  would  never  have  reached 
the  haunts  of  civilized  men. 

His  traveling-kit  was  reduced  to  the  smallest  possible 
:5ilk ;  that  he  minded  little,  but  he  was  vexed  to  be  able  to 

*  The  number  of  attacks  was  thirty-ow 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA.  171 

take  so  few  books.    A  few  days  after  setting  out,  he  writes 
in  his  private  Journal; 

"I  feel  the  want  of  books  in  this  journey  more  than  anything  else. 
A  Sichuana  Pentateuch,  a  lined  journal,  Thomson's  Tables,  a  Nautical 
Almanac,  and  a  Bible,  constitute  my  stock.  The  last  constitutes  my 
chief  resource ;  but  the  want  of  other  mental  pabulum  is  felt  severely. 
There  is  little  to  interest  in  the  conversation  of  the  people.  Loud  dis- 
putes often  about  the  women,  and  angry  altercations  in  which  the  same 
string  of  abuse  is  used,  are  more  frequent  than  anything  else." 

The  "lined  journal,"  of  which  mention  is  made  here,  was 
probably  the  most  wonderful  thing  of  the  kind  ever  taken 
on  such  a  journey.  It  is  a  strongly  bound  quarto  volume 
of  more  then  800  pages,  with  a  lock  and  key.  The  writing 
is  so  neat  and  clear  that  it  might  almost  be  taken  for  litho- 
graph. Occasionally  there  is  a  page  with  letters  beginning 
to  sprawl,  as  if  one  of  those  times  had  come  when  he  tells 
us  that  he  could  neither  think  nor  speak,  nor  tell  any  one's 
name — possibly  not  even  his  own,  if  he  had  been  asked  it. 
He  used  to  jot  his  observations  on  little  note-books,  and 
extend  them  when  detained  by  rain  or  other  causes. 

The  journal  differs  in  some  material  respects  from  the 
printed  record  of  this  journey.  It  is  much  more  explicit  in 
setting  forth  the  bad  treatment  he  often  received.  When 
he  spoke  of  these  things  to  the  public,  he  made  constant 
use  of  the  mantle  of  charity,  and  the  record  of  many  a  bad 
deed  and  many  a  bad  character  is  toned  down.  Naturally, 
too,  the  journal  is  more  explicit  on  the  subject  of  his  own 
troubles,  and  more  free  in  recording  the  play  of  his  feelings. 
It  does  not  hide  the  communings  of  his  heart  with  his 
heavenly  Father.  It  is  built  up  in  a  random-rubble  style; 
here  a  solemn  prayer,  in  the  next  line  a  note  of  lunar 
observations;  then  a  dissertation  on  the  habits  of  the  hippo- 
potamus. Notes  bearing  on  the  character,  the  superstitions, 
and  the  feelings  of  the  natives  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 
The  explanation  is,  that  Livingstone  put  down  everything 
as  it  came,  reserving  the  arranging  and  digesting  of  the 


172  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

whole  to  a  future  time.  The  extremely  hurried  manner  in 
which  he  was  obliged  to  write  his  Missionary  Travels  pre- 
vented him  from  fulfilling  all  his  plan,  and  compelled  him 
to  content  himself  with  giving  to  the  public  then  what 
could  be  put  most  readily  together.  There  are  indications 
that  he  contemplated  in  the  end  a  much  more  thorough 
use  of  his  materials.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  his 
published  volumes  contained  all  that  he  deemed  worthy  of 
publication,  or  that  a  censure  is  due  to  those  who  reproduce 
some  portions  which  he  passed  over.  As  to  the  neat  and 
finished  form  in  which  the  Journal  exists,  it  was  one  of 
the  many  fruits  of  a  strong  habit  of  orderliness  and  self- 
respect  which  he  had  begun  to  learn  at  the  hand  of  his 
mother,  and  which  he  practiced  all  his  life.  Even  in  the 
matter  of  personal  cleanliness  and  dress  he  was  uniformly 
most  attentive  in  his  wanderings  among  savages.  "I  feel 
certain,"  he  said,  "that  the  lessons  of  cleanliness  rigidly 
instilled  by  my  mother  in  childhood  helped  to  maintain 
that  respect  which  these  people  entertain  for  European 
ways." 

The  course  of  the  journey  was  first  along  the  river  Zam- 
besi, as  he  had  gone  before  with  Sekeletu,  to  its  junction 
with  the  Leeba,  then  along  the  Leeba  to  the  country  of 
Lobale  on  the  left  and  Londa  on  the  right.  Then,  leaving 
the  canoes,  he  traveled  on  oxback  first  n.n.w.  and  then  w. 
till  he  reached  St.  Paul  de  Loanda  on  the  coast.  His  Jour- 
nal, like  the  published  volume,  is  full  of  observations  on 
the  beauty  and  wonderful  capacity  and  productiveness  of 
the  country  through  which  he  passed  after  leaving  the  river. 
Instinctively  he  would  compare  it  with  Scotland.  A  beauti- 
ful valley  reminds  him  of  his  native  vale  of  Clyde,  seen 
from  the  spot  where  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  saw  the  battle  of 
Langside ;  only  the  Scottish  scene  is  but  a  miniature  of  the 
much  greater  and  richer  landscape  before  him.  At  the 
sight  of  the  mountains  he  would  feel  his  Highland  blood 
rushing  through  him,  banishing  all  thoughts  of  fever  and 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA.  17S 

fatigue.  If  only  the  blessings  of  the  gospel  could  be  spread 
among  the  people,  what  a  glorious  land  it  would  become  I 
But  alas  for  the  people !  In  most  cases  they  were  outwardly 
very  repulsive.  Never  seen  without  a  spear  or  a  club  in 
their  hands,  the  men  seemed  only  to  delight  in  plunder 
and  slaughter,  and  yet  they  were  utter  cowards.  Their 
mouths  were  full  of  cursing  and  bitterness.  The  execra- 
tions they  poured  on  each  other  were  incredible.  In  very 
wantonness,  when  they  met  they  would  pelt  each  othei 
with  curses,  and  then  perhaps  burst  into  a  fit  of  laughter. 
The  women,  like  the  men,  went  about  in  almost  total  nudity, 
and  seemed  to  know  no  shame.  So  reckless  were  the  chiefs 
of  human  life,  that  a  man  might  be  put  to  death  for  a 
single  distasteful  word ;  yet  sometimes  there  were  exhibi- 
tions of  very  tender  feeling.  The  headman  of  a  village 
once  showed  him,  with  much  apparent  feeling,  the  burnt 
house  of  a  child  of  his,  adding, — "  She  perished  in  it,  and 
we  have  all  removed  from  our  own  huts  and  built  here 
round  her,  in  order  to  weep  over  her  grave."  From  some 
of  the  people  he  received  great  kindness ;  others  were  quite 
different.  Their  character,  ia  short,  was  a  riddle,  and 
would  need  to  be  studied  more.  But  the  prevalent  aspect 
of  things  was  both  distressing  and  depressing.  If  he  had 
thought  of  it  continually,  he  would  have  become  the  victim 
of  melancholy.  It  was  a  characteristic  of  his  large  and 
buoyant  nature,  that,  besides  having  the  resource  of  spiritual 
thought,  he  was  able  to  make  use  of  another  divine  cor- 
rective to  such  a  tendency,  to  find  delightful  recreation  in 
science,  and  especially  in  natural  history,  and  by  this 
means  turn  the  mind  away  for  a  time  from  the  dark  scenes 
of  man's  depravity. 

The  people  all  seemed  to  recognize  a  Supreme  Being; 
but  it  was  only  occasionally,  in  times  of  distress,  that  they 
paid  Him  homage.  They  had  no  love  for  Him  like  that 
of  Christians  for  Jesus — only  terror.  Some  of  them,  who 
were  true  negroes,  had  images,  simple  but  grotesque.  Their 


174  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

strongest  belief  was  in  the  power  of  medicines  acting  as 
charms.  They  fully  recognized  the  existence  of  the  soul 
after  death.  Some  of  them  believed  in  the  metamorphosis 
of  certain  persons  into  alligators  or  hippopotamuses,  or 
into  lions.  This  belief  could  not  be  shaken  by  any  argu- 
ments— at  least  on  the  part  of  man.  The  negroes  proper 
interested  him  greatly ;  they  were  numerous,  prolific,  and 
could  not  be  extirpated.  He  almost  regretted  that  Mr. 
Moffat  had  translated  the  Bible  into  Sichuana.  That  lan- 
guage might  die  out;  but  the  negro  might  sing,  "Men 
may  come  and  men  may  go,  but  I  go  on  for  ever." 

The  incessant  attacks  of  fever  from  which  Livingstone 
sujffered  in  this  journey,  the  continual  rain  occurring  at 
that  season  of  the  year,  the  return  of  the  affection  of  the 
throat  for  which  he  had  got  his  uvula  excised,  and  the 
difficulty  of  speaking  to  tribes  using  different  dialects,  pre- 
vented him  from  holding  his  Sunday  services  as  regularly 
as  before.  Such  entries  in  his  Journal  as  the  following 
are  but  too  frequent : 

"Sunday,  I9th. — Sick  all  Sunday  and  unable  to  move.  Several  of  the 
people  were  ill  too,  so  that  I  could  do  nothing  but  roll  from  side  to  side 
in  my  miserable  little  tent,  in  which,  with  all  the  shade  we  could  give 
it,  the  thermometer  stood  upward  of  90°." 

But  though  little  able  to  preach,  Livingstone  made  the 
most  of  an  apparatus  which  in  some  degree  compensated 
his  lack  of  speech — a  magic-lantern  which  his  friend,  a 
former  fellow-traveler,  Mr.  Murray,  had  given  him.  The 
pictures  of  Abraham  offering  up  Isaac,  and  other  Bible 
scenes,  enabled  him  to  convey  important  truths  in  a  way 
that  attracted  the  people.  It  was,  he  says,  the  only  service 
he  was  ever  asked  to  repeat.  The  only  uncomfortable 
feeling  it  raised  was  on  the  part  of  those  who  stood  on  the 
side  where  the  slides  were  drawn  out.  They  were  terrified 
lest  the  figures,  as  they  passed  along,  should  take  possession 
of  them,  entering  like  spirits  into  their  bodies  I 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA.  175 

The  loneliness  of  feeling  engendered  by  the  absence  of 
all  human  sympathy  was  trying.  "  Amidst  all  the  beauty 
and  loveliness  with  which  I  am  surrounded,  there  is  still 
a  feeling  of  want  in  the  soul, — as  if  something  more  were 
needed  to  bathe  the  soul  in  bliss  than  the  sight  of  the  per- 
fection in  working  and  goodness  in  planning  of  the  great 
Father  of  our  spirits.  I  need  to  be  purified — fitted  for  the 
eternal,  to  which  my  soul  stretches  away,  in  ever  returning 
longings.  I  need  to  be  made  more  like  my  blessed  Saviour, 
to  serve  my  God  with  all  my  powers.  Look  upon  me, 
Spirit  of  the  living  God,  and  supply  all  Thou  seest 
lacking." 

It  was  Livingstone's  great  joy  to  begin  this  long  journey 
with  a  blessed  act  of  humanity,  boldly  summoning  a  trader 
to  release  a  body  of  captives,  so  that  no  fewer  than  eighteen 
souls  were  restored  to  freedom.  As  he  proceeded  he  ob- 
tained but  too  plain  evidence  of  the  extent  to  which  the 
slave  traffic  prevailed,  uniformly  finding  that  wherever 
slavers  had  been,  the  natives  were  more  difficult  to  deal 
with  and  more  exorbitant  in  their  demands.  Slaves  in 
chains  were  sometimes  met  with — a  sight  which  some  of 
his  men  had  never  beheld  before. 

Livingstone's  successful  management  of  the  natives  con- 
stituted the  crowning  wonder  of  this  journey.  Usually  the 
hearts  of  the  chiefs  were  wonderfully  turned  to  him,  so 
that  they  not  only  allowed  him  to  pass  on,  but  supplied 
him  with  provisions.  But  there  were  some  memorable 
occasions  on  which  he  and  his  company  appeared  to  be 
doomed.  When  he  passed  through  the  Chiboque  country, 
the  provisions  were  absolutely  spent ;  there  was  no  resource 
but  to  kill  a  riding-ox,  a  part  of  which,  according  to 
custom,  was  sent  to  the  chief.  Next  day  was  Sunday. 
After  service  the  chief  sent  an  impudent  message  demand- 
ing much  more  valuable  presents.  His  people  collected 
round  Livingstone,  brandishing  their  weapons,  and  one 
young  man  all  but  brought  down  his  sword  on  his  head. 


176  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

It  seemed  impossible  to  avoid  a  fight ;  yet  Livingstone's 
management  prevailed — the  threatened  storm  passed  away. 
Some  days  after,  in  passing  through  a  forest  in  the 
dominions  of  another  chief,  he  and  his  people  were  in 
momentary  expectation  of  an  attack.  They  went  to  the 
chiefs  village  and  spoke  to  the  man  himself;  and  here,  on 
a  Sunday,  while  ill  of  fever,  Livingstone  was  able  to  effect 
a  temporary  settlement.  The  chief  sent  them  some  food; 
then  yams,  a  goat,  fowl,  and  meat.  Livingstone  gave  him 
a  shawl,  and  two  bunches  of  beads,  and  he  seemed  pleased. 
During  these  exciting  scenes  he  felt  no  fever;  but  when 
they  were  over  the  constant  wettings  made  him  experience 
a  sore  sense  of  sinking,  and  this  Sunday  was  a  day  "  of 
perfect  uselessness."  Monday  came,  and  while  Livingstone 
was  as  low  as  possible,  the  inexorable  chief  renewed  his 
demands.     "  It  was,"  he  says,  "  a  day  of  torture." 

"After  talking  nearly  the  whole  day  we  gave  the  old  chief  an  ox,  but 
he  would  not  take  it,  but  another.  I  was  grieved  exceedingly  to  find  that 
our  people  had  become  quite  disheartened,  and  all  resolved  to  return 
home.  All  I  can  say  has  no  effect.  I  can  only  look  up  to  God  to 
influence  their  minds,  that  the  enterprise  fail  not,  now  that  we  have 
reached  the  very  threshold  of  the  Portuguese  settlements.  I  am  greatly 
distressed  at  this  change,  for  what  else  can  be  done  for  this  miserable 
land  I  do  not  see.  It  is  shut.  0  Almighty  God,  help,  help  I  and  leave 
not  this  wretched  people  to  the  slave-dealer  and  Satan.  The  people 
have  done  well  hitherto,  I  see  God's  good  influence  in  it.  Hope  He 
has  left  only  for  a  little  season.  No  land  needs  the  gospel  more  than 
this  miserable  portion.  I  hope  I  am  not  to  be  left  to  fail  in  intro- 
ducing it." 

On  Wednesday  morning,  however,  final  arrangements 
were  made,  and  the  party  passed  on  in  peace.  Ten  days 
later,  again  on  a  Sunday,  they  were  once  more  pestered  by 
a  great  man  demanding  dues.  Livingstone  replied  by 
simply  defying  him.  He  might  kill  him,  but  God  would 
judge.  And  on  the  Monday  they  left  peaceably,  thankful 
for  their  deliverance,  some  of  the  men  remarking,  in  view 
of  it,  that  they  were  "  children  of  Jesus,"  and  Livingstone 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOAN  DA.  Ill 

thanking  God  devoutly  for  his  great  mercy.  Next  day 
they  were  again  stopped  at  the  river  Quango.  The  poor 
Makololo  had  parted  in  vain  with  their  copper  ornaments, 
and  Livingstone  with  his  razors,  shirts,  etc.;  yet  he  had 
made  up  his  mind  (as  he  wrote  to  the  Geographical  Society 
afterward)  to  part  with  his  blanket  and  coat  to  get  a 
passage,  when  a  young  Portuguese  sergeant,  Cypriano  de 
Abrao,  made  his  appearance,  and  the  party  were  allowed 
to  pass. 

There  were  many  proofs  that,  though  a  poor  set  of 
fellows,  Livingstone's  own  followers  were  animated  with 
extraordinary  regard  for  him.  No  wonder!  They  had 
seen  how  sincere  he  was  in  saying  that  he  would  die  rather 
than  give  any  of  them  up  to  captivity.  And  all  his  inter- 
course with  them  had  been  marked  by  similar  proofs  of 
his  generosity  and  kindness.  When  the  ox  flung  him 
into  the  river,  about  twenty  of  them  made  a  simultaneous 
rush  for  his  rescue,  and  their  joy  at  his  safety  was  very 
great. 

Amid  all  that  was  discouraging  in  the  present  aspect  of 
things,  Livingstone  could  always  look  forward  and  rejoice 
in  the  good  time  coming : 

"  Sunday  22d. — ^This  age  presents  one  great  fact  m  the  Providence  of 
God;  missions  are  sent  forth  to  all  quarters  of  the  world, — missions  not 
of  one  section  of  the  Church,  but  of  all  sections,  and  from  nearly  all 
Christian  nations.  It  seems  very  unfair  to  judge  of  the  success  of  these 
by  the  number  of  conversions  which  have  followed.  These  are  rather 
proofs  of  the  missions  being  of  the  right  sort.  They  show  the  direction 
of  the  stream  which  is  set  in  motion  by  Him  who  rules  the  nations,  and 
is  destined  to  overflow  the  world.  The  fact  which  ought  to  stimulate 
us  above  all  others  is,  not  that  we  have  contributed  to  the  conversion 
of  a  few  souls,  however  valuable  these  may  be,  but  that  we  are  diffusing 
a  knowledge  of  Christianity  throughout  the  world.  The  number  of 
conversions  in  India  is  but  a  poor  criterion  of  the  success  which  has 
followed  the  missionaries  there.  The  general  knowledge  is  the  criterion; 
and  there,  as  well  as  in  other  lands  where  missionaries  in  the  midst  of 
masses  of  heathenism  seem  like  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness — Ke- 
formers  before  the  Keformation;  future  missionaries  will  see  conversions 


178  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

follow  every  sermon.  We  prepare  the  way  for  them.  May  they  not 
forget  the  pioneers  who  worked  in  the  thick  gloom  with  few  rays  to 
cheer,  except  such  as  flow  from  faith  in  God's  promises !  We  work  for 
a  glorious  future  which  we  are  not  destined  to  see — the  golden  age  which 
has  not  been,  but  will  yet  be.  We  are  only  morning-stars  shining  in  the 
dark,  but  the  glorious  morn  will  break,  the  good  time  coming  yet.  The 
present  mission-stations  will  all  be  broken  up.  No  matter  how  great 
the  outcry  against  the  instrumentality  which  God  employs  for  his  pur- 
poses, whether  by  French  soldiery  as  in  Tahiti,  or  tawny  Boers  as  in 
South  Africa,  our  duty  is  onward,  onward,  proclaiming  God's  Word 
whether  men  will  hear  or  whether  they  will  forbear.  A  few  conver- 
sions show  whether  God's  Spirit  is  in  a  mission  or  not.  No  mission 
which  has  his  approbation  is  entirely  unsuccessful.  His  purposes  have 
been  fulfilled,  if  we  have  been  faithful.  *The  nation  or  kingdom  that 
will  not  serve  Thee  shall  utterly  be  destroyed' — this  has  often  been  pre- 
reded  by  free  offers  of  friendship  and  mercy,  and  many  missions  which 
ife  has  sent  in  the  olden  time  seemed  bad  failures.  Noah's  preaching 
was  a  failure,  Isaiah  thought  his  so  too.  Poor  Jeremiah  is  sitting 
weeping  tears  over  his  people,  everybody  cursing  the  honest  man,  and 
he  ill-pleased  with  his  mother  for  having  borne  him  among  such  a  set. 
And  Ezekiel's  stiff-necked,  rebellious  crew  were  no  better.  Paul  s«id, 
*A11  seek  their  own,  not  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ,'  and  he  knew  that 
aft;er  his  departure  grievous  wolves  would  enter  in,  not  sparing  the  flock. 
Yet  the  cause  of  God  is  still  carried  on  to  more  enlightened  developments 
of  his  will  and  character,  and  the  dominion  is  being  given  by  the  power 
of  commerce  and  population  unto  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most 
High.  And  this  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  a  little  stone  cut  out  of  a 
mountain  without  hands  which  shall  cover  the  whole  earth.  For  this 
time  we  work;  may  God  accept  our  imperfect  service  1" 

At  length  Livingstone  began  to  get  near  the  coast, 
reaching  the  outlying  Portuguese  stations.  He  was  received 
by  the  Portuguese  gentlemen  with  great  kindness,  and  his 
wants  were  generously  provided  for.  One  of  them  gave 
him  the  first  glass  of  wine  he  had  taken  in  Africa.  Another 
provided  him  with  a  suit  of  clothing.  Livingstone  invoked 
the  blessing  of  Him  who  said,  "I  was  naked  and  ye  clothed 
me."  His  Journal  is  profuse  in  its  admiration  of  some  of 
the  Portuguese  traders,  who  did  not  like  the  slave-trade — 
not  they,  but  had  most  enlightened  views  for  the  welfare 
of  Africa.    But  opposite  some  of  these  eulogistical  passages 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA,  179 

of  the  Journal  there  were  afterward  added  an  expressive 
series  of  marks  of  interrogation. 

At  a  later  date  he  saw  reason  to  doubt  the  sincerity  of 
some  of  the  professions  of  these  gentlemen.  Ingenuous  and 
trustful,  he  could  at  first  think  nothing  but  good  of  those 
who  had  shown  him  such  marked  attention.  Afterward, 
the  inexorable  logic  of  facts  proved  too  strong,  even  for  his 
unsuspecting  soul.  But  the  kindness  of  the  Portuguese 
was  most  genuine,  and  Livingstone  never  ceased  to  be 
grateful  for  a  single  kind  act.  It  is  important  to  note  that 
whatever  he  came  to  think  of  their  policy  afterward,  he 
was  always  ready  to  make  this  acknowledgment. 

Arrived  at  Loanda,  31st  May,  1854,  with  his  twenty-seven 
followers,  he  was  most  kindly  received  by  Mr.  Edmund 
Gabriel,  the  British  Commissioner  for  the  suppression  of 
the  slave-trade  there,  and  everything  was  done  by  him  for 
his  comfort.  The  sensation  of  lying  on  an  English  bed, 
after  six  months  lying  on  the  ground,  was  indescribably 
delightful.  Mr.  Gabriel  was  equally  attentive  to  him  during 
a  long  and  distressing  attack  of  fever  and  dysentery  that 
prostrated  him  soon  after  his  arrival  at  Loanda.  In  his 
Journal  the  warmest  benedictions  are  poured  on  Mr.  Gabriel, 
and  blessings  everlasting  besought  for  his  soul.  One  great 
disappointment  he  suffered  at  Loanda — not  a  single  letter 
was  awaiting  him.  His  friends  must  have  thought  he  could 
never  reach  it.  This  want  of  letters  was  a  very  frequent 
trial,  especially  to  one  who  wrote  so  many,  and  of  such 
length.  The  cordial  friendship  of  Mr.  Gabriel,  however, 
was  a  great  solace.  He  gave  him  much  information,  not 
only  on  all  that  concerned  the  slave-trade — now  more  than 
ever  attracting  his  attention — but  also  on  the  natural 
history  of  the  district,  and  he  entered  con  amove  into  the 
highest  obj  ects  of  his  mission.  Afterward,  in  acknowledging 
to  the  Directors  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  receipt 
of  a  letter  for  Dr.  Livingstone,  intrusted  to  his  care,  Mr. 
Gabriel  wrote  as  follows  (20th  March,  1856) : 


180  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

**Dr.  Livingstone,  after  the  noble  objects  he  has  achieved,  most 
assuredly  wants  no  testimony  from  me.  I  consult,  therefore,  the  impulse 
of  my  own  mind  alone,  when  I  declare  that  in  no  respect  was  my  inter- 
course more  gratifying  to  me  than  in  the  opportunities  afforded  to  me  of 
observing  his  earnest,  active,  and  unwearied  solicitude  for  the  advancement  of 
Christianity.  Few,  perhaps,  have  had  better  opportunities  than  myself 
of  estimating  the  benefit  the  Christian  cause  in  this  country  has  derived  from 
Dr.  Livingstone' s  exertions.  It  is  indeed  fortunate  for  that  sacred  cause, 
and  highly  honorable  to  the  London  Missionary  Society,  when  qualities 
and  dispositions  like  his  are  employed  in  propagating  its  blessings  among  men. 
Irrespective,  moreover,  of  his  laudable  and  single-minded  conduct  as  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  his  attainments  in  making  observations  which 
have  determined  the  true  geography  of  the  interior,  the  Directors,  I  am 
sure,  will  not  have  failed  to  perceive  how  interesting  and  valuable  are 
all  the  communications  they  receive  from  him — as  sketches  of  the  social 
condition  of  the  people,  and  the  material,  fabrics,  and  produce  of  these 
lands.  I  most  fervently  pray  that  the  kind  Providence,  which  has 
hitherto  carried  him  through  so  many  perils  and  hardships,  may  guide 
him  safely  to  his  present  journey's  end." 

The  friendship  of  Mr.  Gabriel  was  honorable  both  to 
himself  and  to  Dr.  Livingstone.  At  a  very  early  period  he 
learned  to  appreciate  Livingstone  thoroughly;  he  saw  how 
great  as  well  as  how  good  a  man  he  was,  and  felt  that  to  be 
the  friend  of  such  a  man  was  one  of  the  highest  distinctions 
he  could  have.  After  Livingstone  left  Loanda,  and  while 
he  was  detained  within  reach  of  letters,  a  brisk  correspond- 
ence passed  between  them;  Mr.  Gabriel  tells  him  about 
birds,  helps  him  in  his  schemes  for  promoting  lawful  com- 
merce, goes  into  ecstasies  over  a  watch-chain  which  he  had 
got  from  him,  tells  him  the  news  of  the  battle  of  the  Alma 
in  the  Crimea,  in  which  his  friend,  Colonel  Steele,  had 
distinguished  himself,  and  of  the  success  of  the  Rae  Ex- 
pedition in  finding  the  remains  of  the  party  under  Sir 
John  Franklin.  In  an  official  communication  to  Lord 
Clarendon,  after  Livingstone  had  left,  Mr.  Gabriel  says, 
5th  August,  1855 :  "  I  am  grieved  to  say  that  this  excellent 
man's  health  has  suffered  a  good  deal  [on  the  return  jour- 
ney].   He  nevertheless  wrote  in  cheerful  spirits,  sanguine 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA,  IM 

of  success  in  doing  his  duty  under  the  guidance  and  pro- 
tection of  that  kind  Providence  who  had  always  carried 
him  through  so  many  perils  and  hardships.  He  assures 
me  that  since  he  knew  the  value  of  Christianity,  he  has 
ever  wished  to  spend  his  life  in  propagating  its  blessings 
among  men,  and  adds  that  the  same  desire  remains  still 
as  strong  as  ever." 

While  Livingstone  was  at  Loanda,  he  made  several 
acquaintances  among  the  officers  of  Her  Majesty's  navy, 
engaged  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade.  For  many 
of  these  gentlemen  he  was  led  to  entertain  a  high  regard. 
Their  humanity  charmed  him,  and  so  did  their  attention 
to  their  duties.  In  his  early  days,  sharing  the  feeling  then 
so  prevalent  in  his  class,  he  had  been  used  to  think  of 
epauleted  gentlemen  as  idlers,  or  worse — "fruges  consumere 
natir  Personal  acquaintance,  as  in  so  many  other  cases, 
rubbed  off  the  prejudice.  In  many  ways  Livingstone's 
mind  was  broadening.  His  intensely  sympathetic  nature 
drew  powerfully  to  all  who  were  interested  in  what  was 
rapidly  becoming  his  own  master-idea — the  suppression  of 
the  slave-trade.  We  shall  see  proofs  not  a  few,  how  this 
sympathetic  affection  modified  some  of  his  early  opinions, 
and  greatly  widened  the  sphere  of  his  charity. 

After  all  the  illness  and  dangers  he  had  encountered, 
Livingstone  might  quite  honorably  have  accepted  a  berth 
in  one  of  Her  Majesty's  cruisers,  and  returned  to  England. 
But  the  men  who  had  come  with  him  from  the  Barotse 
country  to  Loanda  had  to  return,  and  Livingstone  knew 
that  they  were  quite  unable  to  perform  the  journey  without 
him.  That  consideration  determined  his  course.  All  the 
risks  and  dangers  of  that  terrible  road — the  attacks  of 
fever  and  dysentery,  the  protracted  absence  of  those  for 
whom  he  pined,  were  not  to  be  thought  of  when  he  had  a 
duty  to  these  poor  men.  Besides,  he  had  not  yet  accom- 
plished his  object.     He  had,  indeed,  discovered  a  way  by 

^hich  his  friend  Sekeletu  might  sell  his  tusks  to  far  greater 
16 


182  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

advantage,  and  which  would  thus  help  to  introduce  a  legiti- 
mate traffic  among  the  Makololo,  and  expel  the  slave-trade; 
but  he  had  discovered  no  healthy  locality  for  a  mission, 
nor  any  unexceptional  highway  to  the  sea  for  the  purpose 
of  general  traffic.  The  east  coast  seemed  to  promise  better 
than  the  west.  That  great  river,  the  Zambesi,  might  be 
found  to  be  a  navigable  highway  to  the  sea.  He  would 
return  to  Linyanti,  and  set  out  from  it  to  find  a  way  to  the 
eastern  shore.  Leaded  with  kindness  from  many  quarters, 
and  furnished  with  presents  for  Sekeletu,  and  for  the  chiefs 
along  the  way,  Livingstone  bade  farewell  to  Loanda  on 
20th  September,  1854. 

The  following  letter  to  Mrs.  Livingstone,  written  a  month 
afterward,  gives  his  impressions  of  Loanda  and  the  neigh- 
borhood : 

"  Golungo  Alto,  25th  October,  1854. — It  occurs  to  me,  my  dearest  Mary, 
that  if  I  send  you  a  note  from  different  parts  on  the  way  through  this 
colony,  some  of  them  will  surely  reach  you ;  and  if  they  carry  any  of 
the  affection  I  bear  to  you  in  their  composition,  they  will  not  fail  to 
comfort  you.  I  got  everything  in  Loanda  I  could  desire;  and  were  there 
only  a  wagon- path  for  us,  this  would  be  as  good  an  opening  into  the 
interior  as  we  could  wish.  I  remained  rather  a  long  time  in  the  city  in 
consequence  of  a  very  severe  attack  of  fever  and  dysentery  which  reduced 
me  very  much ;  and  I  remained  a  short  time  longer  than  that  actually 
required  to  set  me  on  my  legs,  in  longing  expectation  of  a  letter  from 
you.  None  came,  but  should  any  come  up  to  the  beginning  of  Novem- 
ber, it  will  come  after  me  by  post  to  Cassang6. 

"The  [Roman  Catholic]  Bishop,  who  was  then  acting-governor,  gave 
a  horse,  saddle,  and  bridle,  a  colonel's  suit  of  clothes,  etc.,  for  Sekeletu, 
and  a  dress  of  blue  and  red  cloth,  with  a  white  cotton  blanket  and  cap 
to  each  of  my  companions,  who  are  the  best  set  of  men  I  ever  traveled 
with  except  Malatzi  and  Mebalwe.  The  merchants  of  Loanda  gave 
Sekel6tu  a  large  present  of  cloth,  beads,  etOk,  and  one  of  them,  a  Dutch- 
man, gave  me  an  order  for  ten  oxen  as  provisions  on  the  way  home  to 
the  Zambesi.  This  is  all  to  encourage  the  natives  to  trade  freely  with 
the  coast,  and  will  have  a  good  effect  in  increasing  our  influence  for  that 
which  excels  everything  earthly.  Everything  has,  by  God's  gracious 
blessing,  proved  more  auspicious  than  I  anticipated.  We  have  a  most 
warm-hearted  friend  in  Mr.  Gabriel.  He  acted  a  brother's  part,  and 
IM)W  writes  me  in  the  most  affectionate  manner.     I  thank  God  for  hia 


FROM  LINYANTI  TO  LOAN  DA,  183 

goodness  in  influencing  the  hearts  of  so  many  to  show  kindness,  to  whom 
I  was  a  total  stranger.  The  Portuguese  have  all  been  extremely  kind. 
In  coming  through  the  coffee  plantations  I  was  offered  more  coffee  than 
I  could  take  or  needed,  and  the  best  in  the  world.  One  spoonful  makes 
it  stronger  than  three  did  of  that  we  used.  It  is  found  wild  on  the 
mountains. 

"  Mr.  Grabriel  came  about  30  miles  with  me,  and  ever  since,  though 
1  spoke  freely  about  the  slave-trade,  the  very  gentlemen  who  have  been 
engaged  in  it,  and  have  been  prevented  by  our  ships  from  following  it, 
and  often  lost  much,  treated  me  most  kindly  in  their  houses,  and  often 
accompanied  me  to  the  next  place  beyond  them,  bringing  food  for  all  in 
the  way.  The  common  people  are  extremely  civil,  and  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  inhabitants  in  one  district  called  Ambaca  can  read  and 
write  well.  They  were  first  taught  by  the  Eoman  Catholic  missionaries, 
and  now  teach  each  other  so  well,  it  is  considered  a  shame  in  an  Amba- 
cista  not  to  be  able  to  write  his  own  name  at  least.  But  they  have  no 
Bibles.  They  are  building  a  church  at  Ambaca,  and  another  is  in 
course  of  erection  here,  though  they  cannot  get  any  priests.  May  God 
grant  that  we  may  be  useful  in  some  degree  in  this  field  also.  .  .  , 
^ive  my  love  to  all  the  children,  they  will  reap  the  advantage  of  your 
remaining  longer  at  home  than  we  anticipated.  I  hope  Eobert,  Agnes, 
and  Tom  are  each  learning  as  fast  as  they  can.  When  will  they  be  able 
to  write  a  letter  to  me  ?  How  happy  I  shall  be  to  meet  them  and  you 
again  1  I  hope  a  letter  from  you  may  be  waiting  for  me  at  Zambesi. 
Love  to  all  the  children.  How  tall  is  Zouga?  Accept  the  assurance  of 
unabated  love. 

"David  Livingston." 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  all  this  time  Dr.  Living- 
stone was  making  very  careful  astronomical  observations, 
in  order  to  determine  his  exact  positions,  and  transmitting 
elaborate  letters  to  the  Geographical  Society.  His  astro- 
nomical observations  were  regularly  forwarded  to  his  friend 
the  Astronomer-Royal  at  the  Cape,  Mr.  Maclear,  for  verifi- 
cation and  correction. 

Writing  to  Livingstone  on  27th  March,  1854,  with 
reference  to  some  of  his  earlier  observations,  after  noticing 
a  few  trifling  mistakes,  Mr.  Maclear  says:  "It  is  both 
interesting  and  amusing  to  trace  your  improvement  as  an 
observer.  Some  of  your  early  observations,  as  you  remark, 
are  rough,  and  the  angles  ascribed  to  objects  misplaced  in 


184  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

transcribing.  But  upon  the  whole  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
assert  that  no  explorer  on  record  has  determined  his  path 
with  the  precision  you  have  accomplished."  A  year  after- 
ward, 11th  August,  1855,  but  with  reference  to  papers 
received  from  Sekeletu's  place,  Mr.  Maclear  details  what  he 
had  done  in  reducing  his  observations,  preparing  abstracts 
of  them,  sending  them  to  the  authorities,  and  publishing 
them  in  the  Cape  papers.  He  informs  him  that  Sir  John 
Herschel  placed  them  before  the  Geographical  Society,  and 
that  a  warm  eulogium  on  his  labors  and  discoveries,  and 
particularly  on  the  excellent  series  of  observations  which 
fixed  his  track  so  exactly,  appeared  in  the  President's 
Address. 

Then,  referring  to  his  wonderful  journey  to  Loanda,  and 
remarkable  escapes,  he  says :  "  Nor  is  your  escape  with  life 
from  so  many  attacks  of  fever  other  than  miraculous.  Per- 
haps there  is  nothing  on  record  of  the  kind,  and  it  can 
only  be  explained  by  Divine  interference  for  a  good  pur- 
pose. 0  may  life  be  continued  to  you,  my  dear  friend  I 
You  have  accomplished  more  for  the  happiness  of  mankind 
than  has  been  done  by  all  the  African  travelers  hitherto 
put  together." 

Mr.  Maclear's  reference  to  Livingstone's  work,  in  writing 
to  Sir  John  Herschel,  was  in  these  terms:  "Such  a  man 
deserves  every  encouragement  in  the  power  of  his  country 
to  give.  He  has  done  that  which  few  other  travelers  in 
Africa  can  boast  of — he  has  fixed  his  geographical  points 
with  very  great  accuracy,  and  yet  he  is  only  a  poor 
missionary." 

Nor  did  Dr.  Livingstone  pass  unrewarded  in  other 
quarters.  In  the  Geographical  Society,  his  journey  to 
Loanda,  of  which  he  sent  them  an  account,  excited  the 
liveliest  interest.  In  May,  1855,  on  the  motion  of  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison,  the  Society  testified  its  appreciation 
by  awarding  him  their  gold  medal — the  highest  honor 
they  had  to  bestow.     The  occasion  was  one  of  great 


FEOM  LINYANTI  TO  LOANDA.  185 

interest.  From  the  chair,  Lord  Ellesmere  spoke  of  Living- 
stone's work  in  science  as  but  subordinate  to  those  higher 
ends  which  he  had  ever  prosecuted  in  the  true  spirit  of 
a  missionary.  The  simplicity  of  his  arrangements  gave 
additional  wonder  to  the  results.  There  had  just  appeared 
an  account  of  a  Portuguese  expedition  of  African  explora- 
tion from  the  East  Coast : 

"  I  advert  to  it,"  said  his  Lordship,  "  to  point  out  the  contrast  between 
Ihe  two.  Colonel  Monteiro  was  the  leader  of  a  small  army — some  twenty 
Portuguese  soldiers,  and  a  hundred  and  twenty  Caffres.  The  contrast  is 
■as  great  between  such  military  array  and  the  solitary  grandeur  of  the 
missionary's  progress,  as  it  is  between  the  actual  achievements  of  the 
two — between  the  rough  knowledge  obtained  by  the  Portuguese  of  some 
three  hundred  leagues  of  new  country,  and  the  scientific  precision  with 
which  the  unarmed  and  unassisted  Englishman  has  left  his  mark  on  so 
many  important  stations  of  regions  hitherto  a  blank." 

About  the  time  when  these  words  were  spoken,  Lr, 
Livingstone  was  at  Cabango  on  his  return  journey,  re- 
covering from  a  very  severe  attack  of  rheumatic  fever 
which  had  left  him  nearly  deaf;  besides,  he  was  almost 
blind  in  consequence  of  a  blow  received  on  the  eye  from 
a  branch  of  a  tree  in  riding  through  the  forest.  Notwith- 
standing, he  was  engaged  in  writing  a  despatch  to  the 
Geographical  Society,  through  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  of 
which  more  anon,  reporting  progress,  and  explaining  his 
views  of  the  structure  of  Africa.  But  we  must  return  to 
Loanda,  and  set  out  with  him  and  his  Makololo  in  proper 
ioxm^  on  tkeix  hDmeward  tour. 


186  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTER  IX, 

FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANK, 
A.D.  1854-1856. 

Livingstone  sets  out  from  Loanda — Journey  back — Effects  of  slavery — Lettet 
to  his  wife — Severe  attack  of  fever — He  reaches  the  Barotse  country — Day 
of  thanksgiving — His  efforts  for  the  good  of  his  men — Anxieties  of  the 
Moffats — Mr.  Moffat's  journey  to  Mosilikatse — Box  at  Linyanti — Letter  from 
Mrs.  Moffat — Letters  to  Mrs.  Livingstone,  Mr.  Moffat,  and  Mrs.  Moffat — 
Kindness  of  Sekeletu — New  escort — He  sets  out  for  the  East  Coast — Dis- 
covers the  Victoria  Falls — The  healthy  longitudinal  ridges — Pedestrianism — 
Great  dangers — Narrow  escapes — Triumph  of  the  spirit  of  trust  in  God- 
Favorite  texts — Reference  to  Captain  Maclure's  experience — Chief  subjects 
of  thought — Structure  of  the  continent — Sir  Roderick  Murchison  antici- 
pates his  discovery — Letters  to  Geographical  Society — First  letter  from  Sit 
Roderick  Murchison — Missionary  labor — Monasteries — Protestant  mission- 
stations  wanting  in  self-support — Letter  to  Directors — Fever  not  so  serious 
an  obstruction  as  it  seemed — His  own  hardships — Theories  of  mission-work 
— Expansion  v.  Concentration — Views  of  a  missionary  statesman — He  reaches 
Tette — Letter  to  King  of  Portugal — To  Sir  Roderick  Murchison — Reaches 
Senna — Quilimane — Retrospect — Letter  from  Directors — Goes  to  Mauritius 
—Voyage  home — Narrow  escape  from  shipwreck  in  Bay  of  Tunis — He 
reaches  England,  Dec,  1856 — News  of  his  father's  death. 

Dr.  Livingstone  left  St.  Paul  de  Loanda  on  24th  Sep- 
tember, 1854,  arrived  at  his  old  quarters  at  Linyanti  on 
11th  September,  1855,  set  out  eastward  on  3d  November, 
1855,  and  reached  Quilimane  on  the  eastern  coast  on  20th 
May,  1856.  His  journey  thus  occupied  a  year  and  eight 
months,  and  the  whole  time  from  his  leaving  the  Cape  on 
8th  June,  1852,  was  within  a  few  days  of  four  years.  The 
return  journey  from  Loanda  to  Linyanti  took  longer  than 
the  journey  outward.  This  arose  from  detention  of  various 
kinds:*   the  sicknesses  of  Livingstone  and  his  men,  the 

•  Dr.  Livingstone  observed  that  traders  generally  traveled  ten  days  in  the 
month,  and  rested  twenty,  making  seven  geographical  miles  a  day,  or  seventy 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE,  187 

heavy  rains,  and  in  one  case,  at  Pungo  Andongo,  tiie 
necessity  of  reproducing  a  large  packet  of  letters,  journals, 
maps,  and  despatches,  which  he  had  sent  off  from  Loanda. 
These  were  despatched  by  the  mail-packet  "  Forerunner/' 
which  unhappily  went  down  off  Madeira,  all  the  passengers 
but  one  being  lost.  But  for  his  promise  to  the  Makololo  to 
return  with  them  to  their  country.  Dr.  Livingstone  would 
have  been  himself  a  passenger  in  the  ship.  Hearing  of 
the  disaster  while  paying  a  visit  to  a  very  kind  and 
hospitable  Portuguese  gentleman  at  Pungo  Andongo,  on 
his  way  back,  Livingstone  remained  there  some  time  to 
reproduce  his  lost  papers.  The  labor  thus  entailed  must 
have  been  very  great,  for  his  ordinary  letters  covered 
sheets  almost  as  large  as  a  newspaper,  and  his  maps  and 
despatches  were  produced  with  extraordinary  care. 

He  found  renewed  occasion  to  acknowledge  in  the 
warmest  terms  the  kindness  he  received  from  the  Portu- 
guese ;  and  his  prayers  that  God  would  reward  and  bless 
them  were  not  the  less  sincere  that  in  many  important 
matters  he  could  not  approve  of  their  ways. 

In  traversing  the  road  backward  along  which  he  had 
already  come,  not  many  things  happened  that  demand 
special  notice  in  this  brief  sketch.  We  find  him  both  in 
his  published  book  and  still  more  in  his  private  Journal 
repeating  his  admiration  of  the  country  and  its  glorious 
scenery.  This  revelation  of  the  marvelous  beauty  of  a 
country  hitherto  deemed  a  sandy  desert  was  one  of  the 
most  astounding  effects  of  Livingstone's  travels  on  the 
public  mind.  But  the  more  he  sees  of  the  people  the 
more  profouna  does  their  degradation  appear,  although 
the  many  instances  of  remarkable  kindness  to  himself,  and 
occasional  cases  of  genuine  feeling  one  toward  another, 

per  month.  In  his  case  in  this  journey  the  proportion  was  generally  reversed — 
twenty  days  of  traveling  and  ten  of  rest,  and  his  rate  per  day  was  about  ten 
geographical  miles,  or  two  hundred  per  month.  As  he  often  zigzagged,  the 
geographical  mile  represented  considerably  more.  See  letter  to  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society,  October  16,  1855. 


188  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

convinced  him  that  there  was  a  something  in  them  not 
quite  barbarised.  On  one  point  he  was  very  clear — the 
Portuguese  settlements  among  them  had  not  improved 
them.  Not  that  he  undervalued  the  influences  which  the 
Portuguese  had  brought  to  bear  on  them ;  he  had  a  much 
more  favorable  opinion  of  the  Jesuit  missions  than  Protest- 
ants have  usually  allowed  themselves  to  entertain,  and  felt 
both  kindly  and  respectfully  toward  the  padre^  who  in  the 
earlier  days  of  these  settlements  had  done,  he  believed,  a 
useful  work.  But  the  great  bane  of  the  Portuguese  settle- 
ments was  slavery.  Slavery  prevented  a  good  example,  it 
hindered  justice,  it  kept  down  improvement.  If  a  settler 
took  a  fancy  to  a  good-looking  girl,  he  had  only  to  buy 
her,  and  make  her  his  concubine.  Instead  of  correcting 
the  polygamous  habits  of  the  chiefs  and  others,  the  Portu- 
guese adopted  like  habits  themselves.  In  one  thing  indeed 
they  were  far  superior  to  the  Boers — in  their  treatment  of 
the  children  born  to  them  by  native  mothers.  But  the 
whole  system  of  slavery  gendered  a  blight  which  nothing 
could  counteract;  to  make  Africa  a  prosperous  land,  liberty 
must  be  proclaimed  to  the  captive,  and  the  slave  system, 
with  all  its  accursed  surroundings,  brought  conclusively  to 
an  end.  Writing  to  Mrs.  Livingstone  from  Bashinge,  20th 
March,  1855,  he  gives  some  painful  particulars  of  the  slave- 
trade.  Referring  to  a  slave-agent  with  whom  he  had  been, 
he  says : 

"This  agent  is  about  the  same  in  appearance  as  Mebalwe,  and  speaks 
Portuguese  as  the  Griquas  do  Dutch.  He  has  two  chainsful  of  women 
going  to  be  sold  for  the  ivory.  Formerly  the  trade  went  from  the 
interior  into  the  Portuguese  territory ;  now  it  goes  the  opposite  way 
This  is  the  effect  of  the  Portuguese  love  of  the  trade :  they  cannot  senc 
them  abroad  on  account  of  our  ships  of  war  on  the  coast,  yet  will  sell 
them  to  the  best  advantage.  These  women  are  decent-looking,  as  much 
BO  as  the  general  run  of  Kuruman  ladies,  and  were  caught  lately  in  a 
skirmish  the  Portuguese  had  with  their  tribe;  and  they  will  be  sold  for 
about  three  tusks  each.  Each  has  an  iron  ring  round  the  wrist,  and 
that  is  attached  to  the  chain,  which  she  carries  in  the  hand  to  prevent 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANK  189 

it  jerking  and  hurting  the  wrist.  How  would  Nannie  like  to  be  thus 
treated?  and  yet  it  is  only  by  the  goodness  of  God  in  appointing  our  lot 
in  different  circumstances  that  we  are  not  similarly  degraded,  for  we 
have  the  same  evil  nature,  which  is  so  degraded  in  them  as  to  allow  of 
men  treating  them  as  beasts. 

*'  I  long  for  the  time  when  I  shall  see  you  agam.  I  hope  m  God'a 
mercy  for  that  pleasure.  How  are  my  dear  ones  ?  I  have  not  seen  any 
equal  to  them  since  I  put  them  on  board  ship.  My  brave  little  dears! 
I  only  hope  God  will  show  us  mercy,  and  make  them  good  too.     .    .    . 

"  I  work  at  the  interior  languages  when  I  have  a  little  time,  and  also 
at  Portuguese,  which  I  like  from  being  so  much  like  Latin.  Indeed, 
when  I  came  I  understood  much  that  was  said  from  its  similarity  to 
that  tongue,  and  when  I  interlarded  my  attempts  at  Portuguese  with 
Latin,  or  spoke  it  entirely,  they  understood  me  very  well.  The  Negro 
language  is  not  so  easy,  but  I  take  a  spell  at  it  every  day  I  can.  It  is 
of  the  same  family  of  languages  as  the  Sichuana.     .     ,     . 

*'  We  have  passed  two  chiefs  who  plagued  us  much  when  going  down, 
but  now  were  quite  friendly.  At  that  time  one  of  them  ordered  his 
people  not  to  sell  us  anything,  and  we  had  at  last  to  force  our  way  past 
him.  Now  he  came  running  to  meet  us,  saluting  us,  etc.,  with  great 
urbanity.  He  informed  us  that  he  would  come  in  the  evening  to  receive 
a  present,  but  I  said  unless  he  brought  one  he  should  receive  nothing. 
He  came  in  the  usual  way.  The  Balonda  show  the  exalted  position 
they  occupy  among  men,  viz.,  riding  on  the  shoulders  of  a  spokesman 
in  the  way  little  boys  do  in  England.  The  chief  brought  two  cocks  and 
some  eggs.  I  then  gave  a  little  present  too.  The  alteration  m  this 
gentleman's  conduct — the  Peace  Society  would  not  credit  it — is  attribu- 
table solely  to  my  people  possessing  guns.  When  we  passed  before,  we 
were  defenseless.  May  every  needed  blessing  be  granted  to  you  and  the 
dear  children,  is  the  earnest  prayer  of  your  ever  most  affectionate 

"D.  Livingston." 

It  was  soon  after  the  date  of  this  letter  that  Livingstone 
was  struck  down  by  that  severe  attack  of  rheumatic  fever, 
accompanied  by  great  loss  of  blood,  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made.  "  I  got  it,"  he  writes  to  Mr.  Maclear, 
*'  by  sleeping  in  the  wet.  There  was  no  help  for  it.  Every 
part  of  a  plain  was  flooded  ankle-deep.  We  got  soaked  by 
going  on,  and  sodden  if  we  stood  still."  In  his  former 
journey  he  had  been  very  desirous  to  visit  Matiamvo,  para- 
mount chief  of  the  native  tribes  of  Londa,  whose  friend- 
ship would  have  helped  him  greatly  in  his  journey;  but  at 


190  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

that  time  he  found  himself  too  poor  to  attempt  the  enter- 
prise. The  loss  of  time  and  consumption  of  goods  caused 
by  his  illness  on  the  way  back  prevented  him  from  accom- 
plishing his  purpose  now. 

Not  only  was  the  party  now  better  armed  than  before, 
but  the  good  name  of  Livingstone  had  also  become  better 
known  along  the  line,  and  during  his  return  journey  he 
did  not  encounter  so  much  opposition.  We  connot  fail  to 
be  struck  with  his  extraordinary  care  for  his  men.  It  was 
his  earnest  desire  to  bring  them  all  back  to  their  homes, 
and  in  point  of  fact  the  whole  twenty-seven  returned  in 
good  health.  How  carefully  he  must  have  nursed  them 
in  their  attacks  of  fever,  and  kept  them  from  unnecessary 
exposure,  it  is  hardly  possible  for  strangers  adequately  to 
understand. 

On  reaching  the  country  of  the  Barotse,  the  home  of 
most  of  them,  a  day  of  thanksgiving  was  observed  (23d 
July,  1855).  The  men  had  made  little  fortunes  in  Loanda, 
earning  sixpence  a  day  for  weeks  together  by  helping  to 
discharge  a  cargo  of  coals  or,  as  they  called  them,  "  stones 
that  burned."  But,  like  Livingstone,  they  had  to  part 
with  everything  on  the  way  home,  and  now  they  were  in 
rags ;  yet  they  were  quite  as  cheerful  and  as  fond  of  their 
leader  as  ever,  and  felt  that  they  had  not  traveled  in  vain. 
They  quite  understood  the  benefit  the  new  route  would 
bring  in  the  shape  of  higher  prices  for  tusks  and  the  other 
merchandise  of  home.     On  the  thanksgiving  day — 

"  The  men  decked  themselves  out  in  their  best,  for  all  had  managed 
to  preserve  their  suits  of  European  clothing,  which,  with  their  white 
and  red  caps,  gave  them  a  rather  dashing  appearance.  Thej  tried  to 
■walk  like  soldiers,  and  called  themselves  '  my  braves.'  Having  been 
again  saluted  with  salvos  from  the  women,  we  met  the  whole  population, 
and  having  given  an  address  on  divine  things,  I  told  them  we  had  come 
that  day  to  thank  God  before  them  all  for  his  mercy  in  preserving  us 
from  dangers,  from  strange  tribes  and  sicknesses.  We  had  another 
service  in  the  afternoon.  They  gave  us  two  fine  oxen  to  slaughter,  and 
the  women  have  Bupplied  us  abundantly  with  milk  and  meal.     This  is 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE.  191 

all  gratuitous,  and  I  feel  ashamed  that  I  can  make  no  return.  My  men 
explain  the  whole  expenditure  on  the  way  hither,  and  they  remark 
gratefully  :  "It  does  not  matter,  you  have  opened  a  path  for  us,  and  we 
shall  have  sleep.'  Strangers  from  a  distance  come  flocking  to  see  me,  and 
seldom  come  empty-handed.     I  distribute  all  presents  among  my  men." 

Several  of  the  poor  fellows  on  reaching  home  found 
domestic  trouble — a  wife  had  proved  inconstant  and 
married  another  man.  As  the  men  had  generally  more 
wives  than  one,  Livingstone  comforted  them  by  saying 
that  they  still  had  as  many  as  he. 

Amid  the  anxieties  and  sicknesses  of  the  journey;  and 
multiplied  subjects  of  thought  and  inquiry,  Livingstone 
was  as  earnest  as  ever  for  the  spiritual  benefit  of  the 
people.  Some  extracts  from  his  Journal  will  illustrate  his 
efforts  in  this  cause,  and  the  flickerings  of  hope  that  would 
spring  out  of  them,  dimmed,  however,  by  many  fears : 

^^ August  5,  1855. — A  large  audience  listened  attentively  to  my  address 
this  morning,  but  it  is  impossible  to  indulge  any  hopes  of  such  feeble 
efforts.  God  is  merciful,  and  will  deal  with  them  in  justice  and  kind- 
ness. This  constitutes  a  ground  of  hope.  Poor  degraded  Africa  I  A 
permanent  station  among  them  might  effect  something  in  time,  but  a 
considerable  time  is  necessary.  Surely  some  will  pray  to  their  merciful 
Father  in  their  extremity,  who  never  would  have  thought  of  Him  but 
for  our  visit." 

^^ August  12. — A  very  good  and  attentive  audience.  Surely  all  will  not 
be  forgotten.  How  small  their  opportunity  compared  to  ours  who  have 
been  carefully  instructed  in  the  knowledge  of  divine  truth  from  our 
earliest  infancy  !  The  Judge  is  just  and  merciful.  He  will  deal  fairly 
and  kindly  with  all." 

^^  October  15. — We  had  a  good  and  very  attentive  audience  yesterday, 
and  I  expatiated  with  great  freedom  on  the  love  of  Christ  in  dying,  from 
his  parting  address  in  John  xvi.  It  cannot  be  these  precious  truths 
will  fall  to  the  ground ;  but  it  is  perplexing  to  observe  no  effects.  They 
assent  to  the  truth,  but  'we  don't  know,'  or  'you  speak  truly,'  is  all  the 
response.  In  reading  accounts  of  South  Sea  missions  it  is  hard  to 
believe  the  quickness  of  the  vegetation  of  the  good  seed,  but  I  know 
several  of  the  men"  [the  South  Sea  missionaries],  "  and  am  sure  they 
are  of  unimpeachable  veracity.  In  trying  to  convey  knowledge,  and 
use  the  magic  lantern,  which  is  everywhere  extremely  popular,  though 
they  listen  with  apparent  delight  to  what  is  said,  questioning  them  on 


192  PAVID  LlVm(}BTOnE, 

tlie  following  night  reveals  almost  entire  ignorance  of  the  previous 
lesson.  0  that  the  Holy  Ghost  might  enlighten  them  I  To  his  soul- 
renewing  influence  my  longing  soul  is  directed.  It  is  his  word,  and 
cannot  die." 

The  long  absence  of  Livingstone  and  the  want  of  letters 
had  caused  great  anxiety  to  his  friends.  The  MofFats  had 
been  particularly  concerned  about  him,  and,  in  1854,  partly 
in  the  hope  of  hearing  of  him,  Mr.  Moffat  undertook  a 
visit  to  Mosilikatse,  while  a  box  of  goods  and  comforts  was 
sent  to  Linyanti  to  await  his  return,  should  that  ever  take 
place.  A  letter  from  Mrs.  Moffat  accompanied  the  box.  It 
is  amusing  to  read  her  motherly  explanations  about  the 
white  shirts,  and  the  blue  waistcoat,  the  woolen  socks, 
lemon  juice,  quince  jam,  and  tea  and  coffee,  some  of  which 
had  come  all  the  way  from  Hamilton;  but  there  are 
passages  in  that  little  note  that  make  one's  heart  go  with 
rapid  beat; 

"My  dear  son  Livingston, — Your  present  position  is  almost  too 
much  for  my  weak  nerves  to  suffer  me  to  contemplate.  Hitherto  I 
have  kept  up  my  spirits,  and  been  enabled  to  believe  that  our  great 
Master  may  yet  bring  you  out  in  safety,  for  though  his  ways  are  often 
inscrutable,  I  should  have  clung  to  the  many  precious  promises  made 
in  his  word  as  to  temporal  preservation,  such  as  the  91st  and  121st 
Psalms — but  have  been  taught  that  we  may  not  presume  confidently  to 
expect  them  to  be  fulfilled,  and  that  every  petition,  however  fervent, 
must  be  with  devout  submission  to  his  will.  My  poor  sister-in-law 
clung  tenaciously  to  the  91st  Psalm,  and  firmly  believed  that  her  dear 
husband  would  thus  be  preserved,  and  never  indulged  the  idea  that  they 
should  never  meet  on  earth.  But  I  apprehend  submission  was  wanting.. 
'  If  it  be  Thy  will,'  I  fancy  she  could  not  say — and,  therefore,  she  was-' 
utterly  confounded  when  the  news  came.^  She  had  exercised  strong; 
faith,  and  was  disappointed.  Dear  Livingstone,  I  have  always  endeav- 
ored to  keep  this  in  mind  with  regard  to  you.  Since  George  [Fleming]' 
came  out  it  seemed  almost  hope  against  hope.  Your  having  got  sO' 
thoroughly   feverised  chills  my  expectations ;    still  prayer,  unceasing 

*  Rev.  John  Smith,  missionary  at  Madras,  had  gone  to  Vizagapatam  to  the 
ordination  of  two  native  pastors,  and  when  returning  in  a  small  vessel,  a  stonnu, 
arose,  when  he  and  all  on  board  perished. 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE,  193 

prayer,  is  made  for  you.  When  I  think  of  you  my  heart  will  go 
upward.  *Keep  him  as  the  apple  of  Thine  eye,'  'Hold  him  in  the 
hollow  of  Thy  hand/  are  the  ejaculations  of  my  heart." 

In  writing  from  Linyanti  to  his  wife,  Livingstone  makes 
tlie  best  he  can  of  his  long  detention.  She  seems  to  have 
put  the  matter  playfully,  wondering  what  the  "  source  of 
attraction"  had  been.     He  savs : 

"  Don't  know  what  apology  to  make  you  for  a  delay  I  could  not 
shorten.  But  as  you  are  a  mercifully  kmd-hearted  dame,  I  expect  you 
will  write  out  an  apology  in  proper  form,  and  I  shall  read  it  before  you 
with  as  long  a  face  as  I  can  exhibit.  Disease  was  the  chief  obstacle. 
The  repair  of  the  wagon  was  the  '  source  of  attraction'  in  Cape  Town, 
and  the  settlement  of  a  case  of  libel  another  '  source  of  attraction.' 
They  tried  to  engulf  me  in  a  law-suit  for  simply  asking  the  postmaster 
why  some  letters  were  charged  double.  They  were  so  marked  in  my 
account.  I  had  to  pay  £13  to  quash  it.  They  longed  to  hook  me  in, 
from  mere  hatred  to  London  missionaries.  I  did  not  remain  an  hour 
after  I  could  move.  But  I  do  not  wonder  at  your  anxiety  for  my  speedy 
return.  I  am  sorry  you  have  been  disappointed,  but  you  know  no 
mortal  can  control  disease.  The  Makololo  are  wonderfully  well  pleased 
with  the  path  we  have  already  made,  and  if  I  am  successful  in  going 
down  to  Quilimane,  that  will  be  still  better.  I  have  written  you  by  every 
opportunity,  and  am  very  sorry  your  letters  have  been  miscarried." 

To  his  father-in-law  he  expresses  his  warm  gratitude  for 
the  stores.  It  was  feared  by  the  natives  that  the  goods  were 
bewitched,  so  they  were  placed  on  an  island,  a  hut  was 
built  over  them,  and  there  Livingstone  found  them  on  his 
arrival,  a  year  after!  A  letter  of  twelve  quarto  pages  to 
Mr.  Moffat  gives  his  impressions  of  his  journey,  while 
another  of  sixteen  pages  to  Mrs.  Moffat  explains  his 
"plans,"  about  which  she  had  asked  more  full  informa- 
tion. He  quiets  her  fears  by  his  favorite  texts  for  the 
present — "  Commit  thy  way  to  the  Lord,"  and  "  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway";  and  his  favorite  vision  of  the  future — 
the  earth  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord.  He  is  some- 
what cutting  at  the  expense  of  so-called  "missionaries  to 
the  heathen,  who  never  march  into  real  heathen  territory, 
17 


IH  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

and  quiet  their  consciences  by  opposing  their  do-nothing- 
ism  to  my  blundering  do-somethingism!"  He  is  indignant 
at  the  charge  made  by  some  of  his  enemies  that  no  good 
was  done  among  the  Bakwains.  They  were,  in  many 
respects,  a  different  people  from  before.  Any  one  who 
should  be  among  the  Makololo  as  he  had  been,  would  be 
thankful  for  the  state  of  the  Bakwains.  The  seed  would 
always  bear  fruit,  but  the  husbandman  had  need  of  great 
patience,  and  the  end  was  sure. 

Sekeletu  had  not  been  behaving  well  in  Livingstone's 
absence.  He  had  been  conducting  marauding  parties 
against  his  neighbors,  which  even  Livingstone's  men, 
when  they  heard  of  it,  pronounced  to  be  "bad,  bad." 
Livingstone  was  obliged  to  reprove  him.  A  new  uniform 
had  been  sent  to  the  chief  from  Loanda,  with  which  he 
appeared  at  church,  "  attracting  more  attention  than  the 
sermon."  He  continued,  however,  to  show  the  same  friend- 
ship for  Livingstone,  and  did  all  he  could  for  him  when 
he  set  out  eastward.  A  new  escort  of  men  was  provided, 
above  a  hundred  and  twenty  strong,  with  ten  slaughter 
cattle,  and  three  of  his  best  riding  oxen;  stores  of  food 
were  given,  and  a  right  to  levy  tribute  over  the  tribes 
that  were  subject  to  Sekeletu  as  he  passed  through  their 
borders.  If  Livingstone  had  performed  these  journeys 
with  some  long-pursed  society  or  individual  at  his  back, 
his  feat  even  then  would  have  been  wonderful;  but  it 
becomes  quite  amazing  when  we  think  that  he  went 
without  stores,  and  owed  everything  to  the  influence  he 
acquired  with  men  like  Sekeletu  and  the  natives  gener- 
ally. His  heart  was  much  touched  on  one  occasion  by  the 
disinterested  kindness  of  Sekeletu.  Having  lost  their  way 
on  a  dark  night  in  the  forest,  in  a  storm  of  rain  and  light- 
ning, and  the  luggage  having  been  carried  on,  they  had  to 
pass  the  night  under  a  tree.  The  chief's  blanket  had  not 
been  carried  on,  and  Sekeletu  placed  Livingstone  under 
it,  and  lay  down  himself  on  the  wet  ground.    "If  such 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE.  195 

men  must  perish  before  the  white  by  an  immutable  law 
of  heaven,"  he  wrote  to  the  Geographical  Society  (25th 
January,  1856),  "  we  must  seem  to  be  under  the  same  sort 
of  terrible  necessity  in  our  CafFre  wars  as  the  American 
Professor  of  Chemistry  said  he  was  under,  when  he  dis- 
membered the  man  whom  he  had  murdered." 

Again  Livingstone  sets  out  on  his  weary  way,  untrodden 
by  white  man's  foot,  to  pass  through  unknown  tribes,  whose 
savage  temper  might  give  him  his  quietus  at  any  turn  of 
the  road.  There  were  various  routes  to  the  sea  open  to 
him.  He  chose  the  route  along  the  Zambesi — though  the 
the  most  difficult,  and  through  hostile  tribes — because  it 
seemed  the  most  likely  to  answer  his  desire  to  find  a  com- 
mercial highway  to  the  coast.  Not  far  to  the  east  of 
Linyanti,  he  beheld  for  the  first  time  those  wonderful  falls 
of  which  he  had  only  heard  before,  giving  an  English 
name  to  them, — the  first  he  had  ever  given  in  all  his 
African  journeys, — the  Victoria  Falls.  We  have  seen  how 
genuine  his  respect  was  for  his  Sovereign,  and  it  was 
doubtless  a  real  though  quiet  pleasure  to  connect  her 
name  with  the  grandest  natural  phenomenon  in  Africa* 
This  is  one  of  the  discoveries  ^  that  have  taken  most  hold 
on  the  popular  imagination,  for  the  Victoria  Falls  are  like 
a  second  Niagara,  but  grander  and  more  astonishing ;  but 
except  as  illustrating  his  views  of  the  structure  of  Africa, 
and  the  distribution  of  its  waters,  it  had  not  much  influ- 
ence, and  led  to  no  very  remarkable  results.  Eight  across 
the  channel  of  the  river  was  a  deep  fissure  only  eighty 
feet  wide,  into  which  the  whole  volume  of  the  river,  a 
thousand  yards  broad,  tumbled  to  the  depth  of  a  hundred 
feet,^  the  fissure  being  continued  in  zigzag  form  for  thirty 
miles,  so  that  the  stream  had  to  change  its  course  from 
right  to  left  and  left  to  right,  and  went  through  the  hills 
boiling  and  roaring,  sending  up  columns  of  steam,  formed 

*  Virtually  a  discovery,  though  marked  in  an  old  map. 

•  Afterward  ascertained  by  him  to  be  1800  yards  and  320  feet  respectivelj. 


196  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

by  the  compression  of  the  water  falling  into  its  narrow 
wedge-shaped  receptacle. 

A  discovery  as  to  the  structure  of  the  country,  long 
believed  in  by  him,  but  now  fully  verified,  was  of  much 
more  practical  importance.  It  had  been  ascertained  by 
him  that  skirting  the  central  hollow  there  were  two  longi- 
tudinal ridges  extremely  favorable  for  settlements,  both 
for  missions  and  merchandise.  We  shall  hear  much  of 
this  soon. 

Slowly  but  steadily  the  eastward  tramp  is  continued, 
often  over  ground  which  was  far  from  favorable  for  walk- 
ing exercise.  " Pedestrianism,"  said  Livingstone,  "may 
be  all  very  well  for  those  whose  obesity  requires  much 
exercise ;  but  for  one  who  was  becoming  as  thin  as  a  lath 
through  the  constant  perspiration  caused  by  marching  day 
after  day  in  the  hot  sun,  the  only  good  I  saw  in  it  was 
that  it  gave  an  honest  sort  of  a  man  a  vivid  idea  of  the 
tread-mill." 

When  Livingstone  came  to  England,  and  was  writing 
books,  his  tendency  was  rather  to  get  stout  than  thin; 
and  the  disgust  with  which  he  spoke  then  of  the  "  beastly 
fat"  seemed  to  show  that  if  for  nothing  else  than  to  get 
rid  of  it  he  would  have  been  glad  to  be  on  the  tread-mill 
again.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Maclear  he  thus  speaks 
of  a  part  of  this  journey ;  "  It  was  not  likely  that  I  should 
know  our  course  well,  for  the  country  there  is  covered  with 
shingle  and  gravel,  bushes,  trees,  and  grass,  and  we  were 
without  path.  Skulking  out  of  the  way  of  villages  where 
we  were  expected  to  pay  after  the  purse  was  empty,  it  was 
excessively  hot  and  steamy;  the  eyes  had  to  be  always 
fixed  on  the  ground  to  avoid  being  tripped." 

In  the  course  of  this  journey  he  had  even  more  exciting 
escapades  among  hostile  tribes  than  those  which  he  had 
encountered  on  the  way  to  Loanda.  His  serious  anxieties 
began  when  he  passed  beyond  the  tribes  that  owned 
the  sovereignty  of  Sekeletu.    At  the  union  of  the  rivers 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANK  197 

Loangwa  and  Zambesi,  the  suspicious  feeling  regarding 
him  reached  a  climax,  and  he  could  only  avoid  the 
threatened  doom  of  the  Bazimka  {i.e.  Bastard  Portuguese) 
who  had  formerly  incurred  the  wrath  of  the  chief,  by 
showing  his  bosom,  arms,  and  hair,  and  asking  if  the 
Bazimka  were  like  that.  Livingstone  felt  that  there  was 
danger  in  the  air.  In  fact,  he  never  seemed  in  more  immi- 
nent peril: 

"  14:th  January,  1856. — At  the  confluence  of  the  Loangwa  and  Zam- 
besi. Thank  God  for  his  great  mercies  thus  far.  How  soon  I  may  be 
called  to  stand  before  Him,  my  righteous  Judge,  I  know  not.  All  hearts 
are  in  his  hands,  and  merciful  and  gracious  is  the  Lord  our  God.  O 
Jesus,  grant  me  resignation  to  Thy  will,  and  entire  reliance  on  Thy 
powerful  hand.  On  Thy  Word  alone  I  lean.  But  wilt  Thou  permit  me 
to  plead  for  Africa?  The  cause  is  Thine.  What  an  impulse  will  be 
given  to  the  idea  that  Africa  is  not  open  if  I  perish  now !  See,  0  Lord, 
how  the  heathen  rise  up  against  me,  as  they  did  to  Thy  Son.  I  commit 
my  way  unto  Thee.  I  trust  also  in  Thee  that  Thou  wilt  direct  my  steps. 
Thou  givest  wisdom  liberally  to  all  who  ask  Thee — give  it  to  me,  my 
Father.  My  family  is  Thine.  They  are  in  the  best  hands.  Oh  I  be 
gracious,  and  all  our  sins  do  Thou  blot  out. 

*  A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm, 
On  Thy  kind  arms  I  fall.' 

Leave  me  not,  forsake  me  not,  I  cast  myself  and  all  my  cares  down  at 
Thy  feet.     Thou  knowest  all  I  need,  for  time  and  for  eternity. 

"It  seems  a  pity  that  the  important  facts  about  the  two  healthy 
longitudinal  ridges  should  not  become  known  in  Christendom.  Thy 
will  be  done  I  .  .  .  They  will  not  furnish  us  with  more  canoes  than 
two.  I  leave  my  cause  and  all  my  concerns  in  the  hands  of  God,  my 
gracious  Saviour,  the  Friend  of  sinners. 

^^  Evening. — Felt  much  turmoil  of  spirit  in  view  of  having  all  my 
plans  for  the  welfare  of  this  great  region  and  teeming  population 
knocked  on  the  head  by  savages  to-morrow.  But  I  read  that  Jesus 
came  and  said,  'All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth. 
Go  ye  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations — and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway^ 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.''  It  is  the  word  of  a  gentleman  of  the 
most  sacred  and  strictest  honor,  and  there  is  an  end  on't.  I  will  not 
cross  furtively  by  night  as  I  intended.  It  would  appear  as  flight,  and 
should  such  a  man  as  I  flee  ?    Nay,  verily,  I  shall  take  observations  for 


198  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

latitude  and  longitude  toniglit,  though  they  may  be  the  last.     I  feel 
quite  calm  now,  thank  God. 

"  Ibth  January,  1856. — Left  bank  of  Loangwa.  The  natives  of  the  sur- 
rounding country  collected  round  us  this  morning  all  armed.  Children 
and  women  were  sent  away,  and  Mburuma's  wife  who  lives  here  was 
not  allowed  to  approach,  though  she  came  some  way  from  her  village 
in  order  to  pay  me  a  visit.  Only  one  canoe  was  lent,  though  we  saw 
two  tied  to  ihe  bank.  And  the  part  of  the  river  we  crossed  at,  about  a 
mile  from  the  confluence,  is  a  good  mile  broad.  We  passed  all  our 
goods  first,  to  an  island  in  the  middle,  then  the  cattle  and  men,  I 
occupying  the  post  of  honor,  being  the  last  to  enter  the  canoe.  We 
had,  by  this  means,  an  opportunity  of  helping  each  other  in  case  of 
attack.  They  stood  armed  at  my  back  for  some  time.  I  then  showed 
them  my  watch,  burning-glass,  etc.,  etc.,  and  kept  them  amused  till  all 
were  over,  except  those  who  could  go  into  the  canoe  with  me.  I 
thanked  them  all  for  their  kindness  and  wished  them  peace." 

Nine  days  later  they  were  again  threatened  by  Mpende: 

"23c?  January,  1856. — At  Mpende's  this  morning  at  sunrise,  a  party 
of  his  people  came  close  to  our  encampment,  using  strange  cries,  and 
waving  some  red  substance  toward  us.  They  then  lighted  a  fire  with 
charms  in  it,  and  departed  uttering  the  same  hideous  screams  as  before. 
This  is  intended  to  render  us  powerless,  and  probably  also  to  frighten 
us.  No  message  has  yet  come  from  him,  though  several  parties  have 
arrived,  and  profess  to  have  come  simply  to  see  the  white  man.  Parties 
of  his  people  have  been  collecting  from  all  quarters  long  before  day- 
break. It  would  be  considered  a  challenge — for  us  to  move  down  the 
river,  and  an  indication  of  fear  and  invitation  to  attack  if  we  went  back. 
So  we  must  wait  in  patience,  and  trust  in  Him  who  has  the  hearts  of 
all  men  in  his  hands.  To  Thee,  0  God,  we  look.  And,  oh  !  Thou  who 
wast  the  man  of  sorrows  for  the  sake  of  poor  vile  sinners,  and  didst 
not  disdain  the  thief's  petition,  remember  me  and  Thy  cause  in  Africa, 
faoul  and  body,  my  family,  and  Thy  cause,  I  commit  all  to  Thee.  Hear, 
Lord,  for  Jesus'  sake." 

In  the  entire  records  of  Christian  heroism,  there  are  few 
more  remarkable  occasions  of  the  triumph  of  the  spirit  of 
holy  trust  than  those  which  are  recorded  here  so  quietly 
and  modestly.  We  are  carried  back  to  the  days  of  the 
Psalmist:  "I  will  not  be  afraid  of  ten  thousand  of  the 
people  that  have  set  themselves  against  me  round  about" 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE.  199 

In  the  case  of  David  Livingstone  as  of  the  other  David, 
the  triumph  of  confidence  was  not  the  less  wonderful  that 
it  was  preceded  by  no  small  inward  tumult.  Both  were 
human  creatures.  But  in  both  the  flutter  lasted  only  till 
the  soul  had  time  to  rally  its  trust — to  think  of  God  as 
a  living  friend,  sure  to  help  in  time  of  need.  And  how 
real  is  the  sense  of  God's  presence !  The  mention  of  the 
two  longitudinal  ridges,  and  of  the  refusal  of  the  people 
to  give  more  than  two  canoes,  side  by  side  with  the  most 
solemn  appeals,  would  have  been  incongruous,  or  even 
irreverent,  if  Livingstone  had  not  felt  that  he  was  dealing 
with  the  living  God,  by  whom  every  step  of  his  own  career 
and  every  movement  of  his  enemies  were  absolutely  con- 
trolled. 

A  single  text  often  gave  him  all  the  help  he  needed : 

** It  is  singular,"  he  says,  "that  the  very  same  text  which  recurred 
to  my  mind  at  every  turn  of  my  course  in  life  in  this  country  and  even 
in  England,  should  be  the  same  as  Captain  Maclure,  the  discoverer  of 
the  Northwest  Passage,  mentions  in  a  letter  to  his  sister  as  familiar  in 
his  experience :  '  Trust  in  the  Lord  with  all  thine  heart,  and  lean  not 
to  thine  own  understanding.  In  all  thy  ways  acknowledge  Him  and  He 
shall  direct  thy  steps.  Commit  thy  way  unto  thy  Lord ;  trust  also  in 
Him  and  He  shall  bring  it  to  pass.'  Many  more,  I  have  no  doubt,  of 
our  gallant  seamen  feel  that  it  is  graceful  to  acknowledge  the  gracious 
Lord  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  It  is  an  advance 
Burely  in  humanity  from  that  devilry  which  gloried  in  fearing  neither 
God,  nor  man,  nor  Devil,  and  made  our  wooden  walls  floating  hells." 

His  being  enabled  to  reach  the  sanctuary  of  perfect 
peace  in  the  presence  of  his  enemies  was  all  the  more 
striking  if  we  consider — what  he  felt  keenly — that  to  live 
among  the  heathen  is  in  itself  very  far  from  favorable  to 
the  vigor  or  the  prosperity  of  the  spiritual  life.  "  Travel- 
ing from  day  to  day  among  barbarians,"  he  says  in  his 
Journal,  "  exerts  a  most  benumbing  effect  on  the  religious 
feelings  of  the  soul." 

Among  the  subjects  that  occupied  a  large  share  of  his 
thoughts  in  these  long  and  laborious  journeys,  two  appear 


200  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

to  have  been  especially  prominent :  first,  the  configuration 
of  the  country ;  and  second,  the  best  way  of  conducting 
missions,  and  bringing  the  people  of  Africa  to  Christ. 

The  configuration  of  intertropical  South  Africa  had 
long  been  with  him  a  subject  of  earnest  study,  and  now  he 
had  come  clearly  to  the  conclusion  that  the  middle  part 
was  a  table-land,  depressed,  however,  in  the  centre,  and 
flanked  by  longitudinal  ridges  on  the  east  and  west ;  that 
originally  the  depressed  centre  had  contained  a  vast  accu- 
mulation of  water,  which  had  found  ways  of  escape 
through  fissures  in  the  encircling  fringe  of  mountains,  the 
result  of  volcanic  action  or  of  earthquakes.  The  Victoria 
Falls  presented  the  most  remarkable  of  these  fissures,  and 
thus  served  to  verify  and  complete  his  theory.  The  great 
lakes  in  the  great  heart  of  South  Africa  were  the  remains 
of  the  earlier  accumulation  before  the  fissures  were  formed. 
Lake  'Ngami,  large  though  it  was,  was  but  a  little  fraction 
of  the  vast  lake  that  had  once  spread  itself  over  the  south. 
This  view  of  the  structure  of  South  Africa  he  now  found, 
from  a  communication  which  reached  him  at  Linyanti, 
had  been  anticipated  by  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  who  in 
1852  had  propounded  it  to  the  Geographical  Society. 
Livingstone  was  only  amused  at  thus  losing  the  credit  of 
his  discovery ;  he  contented  himself  with  a  playful  remark 
on  his  being  "  cut  out "  by  Sir  Roderick.  But  the  coin- 
cidence of  views  was  very  remarkable,  and  it  lay  at  the 
foundation  of  that  brotherlike  intimacy  and  friendship 
which  ever  marked  his  relation  with  Murchison.  One  im- 
portant bearing  of  the  geographical  fact  was  this ;  it  was 
evident  that  while  the  low  districts  were  unhealthy,  the 
longitudinal  ridges  by  which  they  were  fringed  were 
salubrious.  Another  of  its  bearings  was,  that  it  would 
help  them  to  find  the  course  and  perhaps  the  sources  of 
the  ,2:reat  rivers,  and  thus  facilitate  commercial  and  mis- 
sionary operations.  The  discovery  of  the  two  healthy 
ridges,  which  made  him  so  unwilling  to  die  at  the  mouth 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE.  201 

of  the  Loangwa,  gave  him  new  hopes  for  missions  and 
commerce. 

These  and  other  matters  connected  with  the  state  of  the 
country  formed  the  subject  of  regular  communications  to 
the  Geographical  Society.  Between  Loanda  and  Quili- 
mane,  six  despatches  were  written  at  dififerent  points.^ 
Formerly,  as  we  have  seen,  he  had  written  through  a 
Fellow  of  the  Society,  his  friend  and  former  fellow- 
traveler,  Captain,  now  Colonel  Steele ;  but  as  the  Colonel 
had  been  called  on  duty  to  the  Crimea,  he  now  addressed 
his  letters  to  his  countryman.  Sir  Roderick  Murchison. 
Sir  Roderick  was  charmed  with  the  compliment,  and  was 
not  slow  to  turn  it  to  account,  as  appears  from  the  follow- 
ing letter,  the  first  of  very  many  communications  which 
he  addressed  to  Livingstone : 

**  16  Belgrave  Square,  October  2,  1855. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — Your  most  welcome  letter  reached  me  after  I  had 
made  a  tour  in  the  Highlands,  and  just  as  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  commenced. 

''  I  naturally  communicated  your  despatch  to  the  Geographical  section 
of  that  body,  and  the  reading  of  it  called  forth  an  unanimous  expression 
of  admiration  of  your  labors  and  researches. 

"  In  truth,  you  will  long  ago,  I  trust,  have  received  the  cordial  thanks 
of  all  British  geographers  for  your  unparalleled  exertions,  and  your 
successful  accomplishment  of  the  greatest  triumph  in  geographical 
research  which  has  been  effected  in  our  times. 

"  I  rejoice  that  I  was  the  individual  in  the  Council  of  the  British 
Greographical  Society  who  proposed  that  you  should  receive  our  first 
gold  medal  of  the  past  session,  and  I  need  not  say  that  the  award  was 
made  by  an  unanimous  and  cordial  vote. 

"  Permit  me  to  thank  you  sincerely  for  having  selected  me  as  your 
correspondent  in  the  absence  of  Colonel  Steele,  and  to  assure  you  that 
I  shall  consider  myself  as  much  honored,  as  I  shall  certainly  be  grati- 
fied, by  every  fresh  line  which  you  may  have  leisure  to  write  to  me. 

"  Anxiously  hoping  that  I  may  make  your  personal  acquaintance, 

*  The  dates  were  Pungo  Andongo,  24th  December,  1854 ;  Cabango,  17th 
May,  1855;  Linyanti,  October  16,  1855;  Chanyuni,  25th  January,  1856; 
Tctte,  4th  March,  1856 ;  Quilimane,  23d  May,  18S6. 


202  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

and  that  you  may  return  to  us  in  health  to  receive  the  homage  of  all 
geographers, — I  remain,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  most  faithfully, 

"  EOD*^''    I.  MURCHISON." 

The  other  subject  that  chiefly  occupied  Livingstone's 
mind  at  this  time  was  missionary  labor.  This,  like  all 
other  labor,  required  to  be  organized,  on  the  principle  of 
making  the  very  best  use  of  all  the  force  that  was  or  could 
be  contributed  for  missionary  effort.  With  his  fair,  open 
mind,  he  weighed  the  old  method  of  monastic  establish- 
ments, and,  mutatis  mutandis^  he  thought  something  of  the 
kind  might  be  very  useful.  He  thought  it  unfair  to  judge 
of  what  these  monasteries  were  in  their  periods  of  youth 
and  vigor,  from  the  rottenness  of  their  decay.  Modern 
raissionary  stations,  indeed,  with  their  churches,  schools, 
and  hospitals,  were  like  Protestant  monasteries,  conducted 
on  the  more  wholesome  principle  of  family  life ;  but  they 
wanted  stability;  they  had  not  farms  like  monasteries, 
and  hence  they  required  to  depend  on  the  mother  country. 
From  infancy  to  decay  they  were  pauper  institutions.  In 
Livingstone's  judgment  they  needed  to  have  more  of  the 
self-supporting  element: 

"  It  would  be  heresy  to  mention  the  idea  of  purchasing  lands,  like 
religious  endowments,  among  the  stiff  Congregationalists  ;  but  an  endow- 
ment conferred  on  a  man  who  will  risk  his  life  in  an  unhealthy  climate, 
in  order,  thereby,  to  spread  Christ's  gospel  among  the  heathen,  is  rather 
diflferent,  I  ween,  from  the  same  given  to  a  man  to  act  as  pastor  to  a 
number  of  professed  Christians.  .  .  .  Some  may  think  it  creditable 
to  our  principles  that  we  have  not  a  single  acre  of  land,  the  gift  of  the 
Colonial  Government,  in  our  possession.  But  it  does  not  argue  much 
for  our  foresight  that  we  have  not  farms  of  our  own,  equal  to  those  of 
any  colonial  farmer." 

Dr.  Livingstone  acknowledged  the  services  of  the  Jesuit 
missionaries  in  the  cause  of  education  and  literature,  and 
even  of  commerce.  But  while  conceding  to  them  this 
meed  of  praise,  he  did  not  praise  their  worship.  He  was 
Blow,  indeed,  to  disparage  any  form  of  worship — any  form 


FROM  LO AND  A  TO  QUILIMANE.  203 

in  which  men,  however  unenlightened,  gave  expression  to 
their  religious  feelings;  but  he  could  not  away  with  the 
sight  of  men  of  intelligence  kissing  the  toe  of  an  image 
of  the  Virgin,  as  he  saw  them  doing  in  a  Portuguese 
church,  and  taking  part  in  services  in  which  they  did  not, 
and  could  not,  believe.  If  the  missions  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  had  left  good  effects  on  some  parts  of  Africa,  how 
much  greater  blessing  might  not  come  from  Protestant 
missions,  with  the  Bible  instead  of  the  Syllabus  as  their 
basis,  and  animated  with  the  spirit  of  freedom  instead  of 
despotism ! 

With  regard  to  that  part  of  Africa  which  he  had  been 
exploring,  he  gives  his  views  at  great  length  in  a  letter  to 
xhe  Directors,  dated  Linyanti,  12th  October,  1855.  After 
lully  describing  the  physical  features  of  the  country,  he 
fastens  on  the  one  element  which,  more  than  any  other, 
was  likely  to  hinder  missions — fever.  He  does  not  deny 
that  it  is  a  serious  obstacle.  But  he  argues  at  great  length 
that  it  is  not  insurmountable.  Fever  yields  to  proper  treat- 
ment. His  own  experience  was  no  rule  to  indicate  what 
might  be  reckoned  on  by  others.  His  journeys  had  been 
made  under  the  worst  possible  conditions.  Bad  food,  poor 
nursing,  insufficient  medicines,  continual  drenchings,  ex- 
hausting heat  and  toil,  and  wearing  anxiety  had  caused 
much  of  his  illness.  He  gives  a  touching  detail  of  the 
hardships  incident  to  his  peculiar  case,  from  which  other 
missionaries  would  be  exempted,  but  with  characteristic 
manliness  he  charges  the  Directors  not  to  publish  that  part 
of  his  letter,  lest  he  should  appear  to  be  making  too  much 
of  his  trials.  "  Sacrifices  "  he  could  never  call  them,  be- 
cause nothing  could  be  worthy  of  that  name  in  the  service 
of  Him  who,  though  he  was  rich,  for  our  sakes  became 
poor.  Two  or  three  times  every  day  he  had  been  wet  up 
to  the  waist  in  crossing  streams  and  marshy  ground.  The 
rain  was  so  drenching  that  he  had  often  to  put  his  watch 
under  his  arm-pit  to  keep  it  diy.    His  good  ox  Sindbad 


204  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

would  never  let  him  hold  an  umbrella.     His  bed  was  on 

grass,  with  only  a  horse-cloth  between.  His  food  often  con- 
sisted of  bird-seed,  manioc-roots,  and  meal.  No  wonder  if 
he  suffered  much.  Others  would  not  have  all  that  to  bear. 
Moreover,  if  the  fever  of  the  district  was  severe,  it  was 
almost  the  only  disease.  Consumption,  scrofula,  madness, 
cholera,  cancer,  delirium  tremens,  and  certain  contagious 
diseases  of  which  much  was  heard  in  civilized  countries, 
were  hardly  known.  The  beauty  of  some  parts  of  the 
country  could  not  be  surpassed.  Much  of  it  was  densely 
peopled,  but  in  other  parts  the  population  was  scattered. 
Many  of  the  tribes  were  friendly,  and,  for  reasons  of  their 
own,  would  welcome  missionaries.  The  Makololo,  for 
example,  furnished  an  inviting  field.  The  dangers  he  had 
encountered  arose  from  the  irritating  treatment  the  tribes 
had  received  from  half-cast  traders  and  slave-dealers,  in 
consequence  of  which  they  had  imposed  certain  taxes  on 
travelers,  which,  sometimes,  he  and  his  brother-chartists 
had  refused  to  pay.  They  were  mistaken  for  slave-dealers. 
But  character  was  a  powerful  educator.  A  body  of  mis- 
sionaries, maintaining  everywhere  the  character  of  honest, 
truthful,  kind-hearted  Christian  gentlemen,  would  scatter 
such  prejudices  to  the  winds. 

In  instituting  a  comparison  between  the  direct  and  in- 
direct results  of  missions,  between  conversion-work  and 
the  diffusion  of  better  principles,  he  emphatically  assigns 
the  preference  to  the  latter.  Not  that  he  undervalued  the 
conversion  of  the  most  abject  creature  that  breathed.  To 
the  man  individually  his  conversion  was  of  over  A^ielraing 
consequence,  but  with  relation  to  the  final  hariest,  it  was 
more  important  to  sow  the  seed  broadcast  over  l  wide  field 
than  to  reap  a  few  heads  of  grain  on  a  single  ^^pot.  Con- 
centration was  not  the  true  principle  of  missions.  The 
Society  itself  had  felt  this,  in  sending  Morrison  and  Milne 
to  be  lost  among  the  three  hundred  millions  of  China; 
and  the  Church  of  England,  in  looking  t(  the  Antipodes, 


FROM  LO  AND  A  TO  QUILIMANE.  205 

to  Patagonia,  to  East  Africa,  with  the  full  knowledge  that 
charity  began  at  home.  Time  was  more  essential  than 
concentration.  Ultimately  there  would  be  more  con- 
versions, if  only  the  seed  were  now  more  widely  spread. 

He  concludes  by  pointing  out  the  difference  between 
mere  worldly  enterprises  and  missionary  undertakings  for 
the  good  of  the  world.  The  world  thought  their  mission 
schemes  fanatical ;  the  friends  of  missions,  on  the  other 
hand,  could  welcome  the  commercial  enterprises  of  the 
world  as  fitted  to  be  useful.  The  Africans  were  all  deeply 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  trade.  Commerce  was  so  far 
good  that  it  taught  the  people  their  mutual  dependence; 
but  Christianity  alone  reached  the  centre  of  African  wants. 
"  Theoretically,"  he  concludes,  "  I  would  pronounce  the 
country  about  the  junction  of  the  Leeba  and  Leeambye  or 
Kabompo,  and  river  of  the  Bashukulompo,  as  a  most 
desirable  centre-point  for  the  spread  of  civilization  and 
Christianity ;  but  unfortunately  I  must  mar  my  report  by 
saying  I  feel  a  difficulty  as  to  taking  my  children  there 
without  their  intelligent  self-dedication.  I  can  speak  for 
my  wife  and  myself  only.    We  will  go,  whoever  remains 

BEHIND." 

Resuming  the  subject  some  months  later,  after  he  had 
got  to  the  sea-shore,  he  dwells  on  the  belt  of  elevated  land 
eastward  from  the  country  of  the  Makololo,  two  degrees 
of  longitude  broad,  and  of  unknown  length,  as  remarkably 
suitable  for  the  residence  of  European  missionaries.  It 
was  formerly  occupied  by  the  Makololo,  and  they  had  a 
great  desire  to  resume  the  occupation.  One  great  advan- 
tage of  such  a  locality  was  that  it  was  on  the  border  of  the 
regions  occupied  by  the  true  negroes,  the  real  nucleus  of 
the  African  population,  to  whom  they  owed  a  great  debt, 
and  who  had  shown  themselves  friendly  and  disposed  to 
learn.  It  was  his  earnest  hope  that  the  Directors  would 
plant  a  mission  here,  and  his  belief  that  they  would 
thereby  confer  unlimited  blessing  on  the  regions  beyond. 
18 


206  DA  VID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Some  of  the  remarks  in  these  passages,  and  also  in  the 
extracts  which  we  have  given  from  his  Journals,  are  of 
profound  interest,  as  indicating  an  important  transition 
from  the  ideas  of  a  mere  missionary  laborer  to  those  of  a 
missionary  general  or  statesman.  In  the  early  part  of  his 
life  he  deemed  it  his  joy  and  his  honor  to  aim  at  the  con- 
version of  individual  souls,  and  earnestly  did  he  labor  and 
pray  for  that,  although  his  visible  success  was  but  small. 
But  as  he  gets  better  acquainted  with  Africa,  and  reaches 
a  more  commanding  point  of  view,  he  sees  the  necessity 
for  other  work.  The  continent  must  be  surveyed,  healthy 
localities  for  mission-stations  must  be  found,  the  tempta- 
tions to  a  cursed  traffic  in  human  flesh  must  be  removed, 
the  products  of  the  country  must  be  turned  to  account; 
its  whole  social  economy  must  be  changed.  The  accom- 
plishment of  such  objects,  even  in  a  limited  degree,  would 
be  an  immense  service  to  the  missionary;  it  would  be 
such  a  preparing  of  his  way  that  a  hundred  years  hence 
the  spiritual  results  would  be  far  greater  than  if  all  the 
effort  now  were  concentrated  on  single  souls.  To  many 
persons  it  appeared  as  if  dealing  with  individual  souls 
were  the  only  proper  work  of  a  missionary,  and  as  if  one 
who  had  been  doing  such  work  would  be  lowering  him- 
self if  he  accepted  any  other.  Livingstone  never  stopped 
to  reason  as  to  which  was  the  higher  or  the  more  desirable 
work ;  he  felt  that  Providence  was  calling  him  to  be  less 
of  a  missionary  journeyman  and  more  of  a  missionary 
statesman ;  but  the  great  end  was  ever  the  same — 

"the  end  op  the  geographical  feat  is  only 
the  beginning  of  the  enterprise." 

Livingstone  reached  the  Portuguese  settlement  of  Tette 
on  the  3d  March,  1856, and  the  "civilized  breakfast"  which 
the  commandant,  Major  Sicard,  sent  forward  to  him,  on 
his  way,  was  a  luxury  like  Mr.  Gabriel's  bed  at  Loanda, 
and  made  him  walk  the  last  eight  miles  without  the  least 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE.  207 

sensation  of  fatigue,  although  the  road  was  so  rough  that, 
as  a  Portuguese  soldier  remarked,  it  was  like  "  to  tear  a 
man's  life  out  of  him."  At  Loanda  he  had  heard  of  the 
battle  of  the  Alma ;  after  being  in  Tette  a  short  time  he 
heard  of  the  fall  of  Sebastopol  and  the  end  of  the  Crimean 
War.  He  remained  in  Tette  till  the  23d  April,  detained 
by  an  attack  of  fever,  receiving  extraordinary  kindness 
from  the  Governor,  and,  among  other  tokens  of  affection, 
a  gold  chain  for  his  daughter  Agnes,  the  work  of  an 
inhabitant  of  the  town.  These  gifts  were  duly  acknowl- 
edged. It  was  at  this  place  that  Dr.  Livingstone  left  his 
Makololo  followers,  with  instructions  to  wait  for  him  till 
he  should  return  from  England.  Well  entitled  though  he 
was  to  a  long  rest,  he  deliberately  gave  up  the  possibility 
of  it,  by  engaging  to  return  for  his  black  companions. 

In  the  case  of  Dr.  Livingstone,  rest  meant  merely  change 
of  employment,  and  while  resting  and  recovering  from 
fever,  he  wrote  a  large  budget  of  long  and  interesting 
letters.  One  of  these  was  addressed  to  the  King  of  Portu- 
gal :  it  affords  clear  evidence  that,  however  much  Living- 
stone felt  called  to  reprobate  the  deeds  of  some  of  his 
subordinates,  he  had  a  respectful  feeling  for  the  King 
himself,  a  grateful  sense  of  the  kindness  received  from  his 
African  subjects,  and  an  honest  desire  to  aid  the  whole- 
some development  of  the  Portuguese  colonies.  It  refutes, 
by  anticipation,  calumnies  afterward  circulated  to  the 
effect  that  Livingstone's  real  design  was  to  wrest  the  Por- 
tuguese settlements  in  Africa  from  Portugal,  and  to  annex 
them  to  the  British  Crown.  He  refers  most  gratefully  to 
the  great  kindness  and  substantial  aid  he  had  received 
from  His  Majesty's  subjects,  and  is  emboldened  thereby  to 
address  him  on  behalf  of  Africa.  He  suggests  certain 
agricultural  products — especially  wheat  and  a  species  of 
wax — that  might  be  cultivated  with  enormous  profit.  A 
great  stimulus  might  be  given  to  the  cultivation  of  other 
products — coffee,  cotton,  sugar,  and  oil.    Much  had  been 


208  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

done  for  Angola,  but  with  little  result,  because  the  colonists 
leant  on  Government  instead  of  trusting  to  themselves. 
Illegitimate  traffic  (the  slave-trade)  was  not  at  present 
remunerative,  and  now  was  the  time  to  make  a  great 
effort  to  revive  wholesome  enterprise.  A  good  road  into 
the  interior  would  be  a  great  boon.  Efforts  to  provide 
roads  and  canals  had  failed  for  want  of  superintendents. 
Dr.  Livingstone  named  a  Portuguese  engineer  who  would 
superintend  admirably.  The  fruits  of  the  Portuguese 
missions  were  still  apparent,  but  there  was  a  great  want 
of  literature,  of  books. 

"  It  will  not  be  denied,"  concludes  the  letter,  "  that  those  who,  like 
jour  Majesty,  have  been  placed  over  so  many  human  souls,  have  a 
serious  responsibility  resting  upon  them  in  reference  to  their  future 
welfare.  The  absence  also  of  Portuguese  women  in  the  colony  is  a 
circumstance  which  seems  to  merit  the  attention  of  Government  for 
obvious  reasons.  And  if  any  of  these  suggestions  should  lead  to  thd 
formation  of  a  middle  class  of  free  laborers,  I  feel  sure  that  Angola 
would  have  cause  to  bless  your  Majesty  to  the  remotest  time." 

Dr.  Livingstone  has  often  been  accused  of  claiming  for 
himself  the  credit  of  discoveries  made  by  others,  of  writing 
as  if  he  had  been  the  first  to  traverse  routes  in  which  he 
had  really  been  preceded  by  the  Portuguese.  Even  were 
it  true  that  now  and  then  an  obscure  Portuguese  trader  or 
traveler  reached  spots  that  lay  in  Dr.  Livingstone's  subse- 
quent route,  the  fact  would  detract  nothing  from  his  merit, 
because  he  derived  not  a  tittle  of  benefit  from  their  experi- 
ence, and  what  he  was  concerned  about  was,  not  the  mere 
honor  of  being  first  at  a  place,  as  if  he  had  been  running 
a  race,  but  to  make  it  known  to  the  world,  to  bring  it  into 
the  circuit  of  commerce  and  Christianity,  and  thus  place 
it  under  the  influence  of  the  greatest  blessings.  But  even 
as  to  being  first,  Livingstone  was  careful  not  to  claim 
anything  that  was  really  due  to  others.  Writing  from 
Tette  to  Sir  Roderick  in  March,  1856,  he  says :  "  It  seems 
proper  to  mention  what  has  been  done  in  former  times  in 


FROM  LO  AND  A  TO  QUILIMANE.  209 

the  way  of  traversing  the  continent,  and  the  result  of  my 
inquiries  leads  to  the  belief  that  the  honor  belongs  to  our 
country."  He  refers  to  the  brave  attempt  of  Captain  Jos6 
da  Roga,  in  1678,  to  penetrate  from  Benguela  to  the  Rio 
da  Senna,  in  which  attempt,  however,  so  much  opposition 
was  encountered  that  he  was  compelled  to  return.  In 
1800,  Lacerda  revived  the  project  by  proposing  a  chain  of 
forts  along  the  banks  of  the  C'oanza.  In  1815,  two  black 
traders  showed  the  possibility  of  communication  from  east 
to  west,  by  bringing  to  Loanda  communications  from  the 
Governor  of  Mozambique.  Some  Arabs  and  Moors  went 
from  the  East  Coast  to  Benguela,  and  with  a  view  to 
improve  the  event,  "a  million  of  Reis  (£142)  and  an 
honorary  captaincy  in  the  Portuguese  army  was  offered 
to  any  one  who  would  accompany  them  back — but  none 
went."  The  journey  had  several  times  been  performed  by 
Arabs. 

"  I  do  not  feel  so  much  elated,"  continued  Dr.  Livingstone,  "  by  the 
prospect  of  accomplishing  this  feat.  I  feel  most  thankful  to  God  for 
preserving  my  life,  where  so  many,  who  by  superior  intelligence  would 
have  done  more  good,  have  been  cut  off.  But  it  does  not  look  as  if  I 
had  reached  the  goal.  Viewed  in  relation  to  my  calling,  the  end  of  the 
geographical  feat  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  enterprise.  Apart  from 
family  longings,  I  have  a  most  intense  longing  to  hear  how  it  has  fared 
with  our  brave  men  at  Sebaetopol.  My  last  scrap  of  intelligence  was 
the  Times,  17th  November,  1855,  after  the  terrible  affair  of  the  Light 
Cavalry.  The  news  was  not  certain  about  a  most  determined  attack  to 
force  the  way  to  Balaclava,  and  Sebastopol  expected  every  day  to  fall, 
and  I  have  had  to  repress  all  my  longings  since,  except  in  a  poor  prayer 
to  prosper  the  cause  of  justice  and  right,  and  cover  the  heads  of  our 
soldiers  in  the  day  of  battle."  [A  few  days  later  he  heard  the  news.] 
"We  are  all  engaged  in  very  much  the  same  cause.  Geographers, 
astronomers,  and  mechanicians,  laboring  to  make  men  better  acquainted 
with  each  other;  sanitary  reformers,  prison  reformers,  promoters^  of 
ragged  schools  and  Niger  Expeditions  ;  soldiers  fighting  for  right  agamst 
oppression,  and  sailors  rescuing  captives  in  deadly  climes,  as  well  as 
missionaries,  are  all  aiding  in  hastening  on  a  glorious  consummation  to 
all  God's  dealings  with  our  race.  In  the  hope  that  I  may  yet  be  honored 
to  do  eome  good  to  this  poor  long  downtrodden  Africa,  the  gentlemen 


210  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

over  whom  you  have  the  honor  to  preside  will,  I  believe,  cordially 
join." 

From  Tette  he  went  on  to  Senna.  Again  he  is  treated 
with  extraordinary  kindness  by  Lieutenant  Miranda,  and 
others,  and  again  he  is  prostrated  by  an  attack  of  fever. 
Provided  with  a  comfortable  boat,  he  at  last  reaches  Quili- 
mane  on  the  20th  May,  and  is  most  kindly  received  by 
Colonel  Nunes,  "  one  of  the  best  men  in  the  country."  Dr. 
Livingstone  has  told  us  in  his  book  how  his  joy  in  reach- 
ing Quilimane  was  embittered  on  his  learning  that  Captain 
Maclure,  Lieutenant  WoodrujQPe,  and  five  men  of  H.  M.  S. 
*'  Dart,"  had  been  drowned  off  the  bar  in  coming  to  Quili- 
mane to  pick  him  up,  and  how  he  felt  as  if  he  would 
rather  have  died  for  them.^ 

News  from  across  the  Atlantic  likewise  informed  him 
that  his  nephew  and  namesake,  David  Livingston,  a  fine 
lad  eleven  years  of  age,  had  been  drowned  in  Canada. 
All  the  deeper  was  his  gratitude  for  the  goodness  and 
mercy  that  had  followed  him  and  preserved  him,  as  he 
says  in  his  private  Journal,  from  "many  dangers  not 
recorded  in  this  book." 

The  retrospect  in  his  Missionary  Travels  of  the  manner 
in  which  his  life  had  been  ordered  up  to  this  point,  is  so 
striking  that  our  narrative  would  be  deficient  if  it  did  not 
contain  it : 

"  If  the  reader  remembers  the  way  in  which  I  was  led,  while  teach- 
ing the  Bakwains,  to  commence  exploration,  he  will,  I  think,  recogaize 
the  hand  of  Providence.  Anterior  to  that,  when  Mr.  Moffat  began  to 
give  the  Bible — the  Magna  Charta  of  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
modern  civilization — to  the  Bechuanas,  Sebituane  went  north,  and 
spread  the  language  into  which  he  was  translating  the  sacred  oracles, 

*  Among  Livingstone's  papers  we  have  found  draft  letter  to  the  Admiralty, 
earnestly  commending  to  their  Lordship's  favorable  consideration  a  petition 
from  the  widow  of  one  of  the  men.  He  had  never  seen  her,  he  said,  but  he 
had  been  the  unconscious  cause  of  her  husband's  death,  and  all  the  joy  he  fell 
in  crossing  the  continent  was  embittered  when  the  news  of  the  sad  catastrophe 
reached  him. 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE,  211 

in  a  new  region  larger  than  France.  Sebituane,  at  the  same  time, 
rooted  out  hordes  of  bloody  savages,  among  whom  no  white  man  could 
have  gone  without  leaving  his  skwll  to  ornament  some  village.  He 
opened  up  the  way  for  me — let  us  hope  also  for  the  Bible.  Then, 
again,  while  I  was  laboring  at  Kolobeng,  seeing  only  a  small  arc  of 
the  cycle  of  Providence,  I  could  not  understand  it,  and  felt  inclined  to 
ascribe  our  successive  and  prolonged  droughts  to  the  wicked  one.  But 
when  forced  by  these,  and  the  Boers,  to  become  explorer,  and  open  a 
new  country  in  the  north  rather  than  set  my  face  southward,  where 
missionaries  are  not  needed,  the  gracious  Spirit  of  God  influenced  the 
minds  of  the  heathen  to  regard  me  with  favor,  the  Divine  hand  is  again 
perceived.  Then  I  turned  away  westward,  rather  than  in  the  opposite 
direction,  chiefly  from  observing  that  some  native  Portuguese,  though, 
influenced  by  the  hope  of  a  reward  from  their  Grovernment  to  cross  the 
continent,  had  been  obliged  to  return  from  the  east  without  accom- 
plishing their  object.  Had  I  gone  at  first  in  the  eastern  direction, 
which  the  course  of  the  great  Leeambye  seemed  to  invite,  I  should 
have  come  among  the  belligerents  near  Tette  when  the  war  was  raging 
at  its  height,  instead  of,  as  it  happened,  when  all  was  over.  And 
again,  when  enabled  to  reach  Loanda,  the  resolution  to  do  my  duty  by 
going  back  to  Linyanti  probably  saved  me  from  the  fate  of  my  papers 
in  the  *  Forerunner.'  And  then,  last  of  all,  this  new  country  is  par- 
tially opened  to  the  sympathies  of  Christendom,  and  I  find  that  Sechele 
himself  has,  though  unbidden  by  man,  been  teaching  his  own  people. 
In  fact,  he  has  been  doing  all  that  I  was  prevented  from  doing,  and  I 
have  been  employed  in  exploring — a  work  I  had  no  previous  intention 
of  performing.  I  think  that  I  see  the  operation  of  the  Unseen  Hand 
in  all  this,  and  I  humbly  hope  that  it  will  still  guide  me  to  do  good  in 
my  day  and  generation  in  Africa." 

In  looking  forward  to  the  work  to  whicli  Providence 
seemed  to  be  calling  him,  a  communication  received  at 
Quilimane  disturbed  him  not  a  little.  It  was  from  the 
London  Missionary  Society.  It  informed  him  that  the 
Directors  were  restricted  in  their  power  of  aiding  plans 
connected  only  remotely  with  the  spread  of  the  gospel, 
and  that  even  though  certain  obstacles  (from  tsetse,  etc.) 
should  prove  surmountable,  "  the  financial  circumstances 
of  the  Society  are  not  such  as  to  afford  any  ground  of 
hope  that  it  would  be  in  a  position  within  any  definite 
period  to  undertake  untried  any  remote  and  difficult  fields 


212  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

of  labor."  Dr.  Livingstone  very  naturally  understood  this 
as  a  declinature  of  his  proposals.  Writing  on  the  subject 
to  Rev.  William  Thompson,  the  Society's  agent  at  Cape 
Town,  he  said : 

"  I  had  imagined  in  my  simplicity  that  both  my  preaching,  conversa- 
tion, and  travel  were  as  nearly  connected  with  the  spread  of  the  gospel 
as  the  Boers  would  allow  them  to  be.  A  plan  of  opening  up  a  path 
from  either  the  East  or  West  Coast  for  the  teeming  population  of  the 
interior  was  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  Directors,  and  received 
their  formal  approbation. 

"I  have  been  seven  times  in  peril  of  my  life  from  savage  men  while 
laboriously  and  without  swerving  pursuing  that  plan,  and  never  doubt- 
ing that  I  was  in  the  path  of  duty. 

"  Indeed,  so  clearly  did  I  perceive  that  I  was  performing  good  service 
to  the  cause  of  Christ,  that  I  wrote  to  my  brother  that  I  would  perish 
rather  than  fail  in  my  enterprise.  I  shall  not  boast  of  what  I  have 
done,  but  the  wonderful  mercy  I  have  received  will  constrain  me  to 
follow  out  the  work  in  spite  of  the  veto  of  the  Board. 

"  If  it  is  according  to  the  will  of  Grod,  meane  will  be  provided  from 
other  quarters." 

A  long  letter  to  the  Secretary  gives  a  fuller  statement 
of  his  views.  It  is  so  important  as  throwing  light  on  his 
missionary  consistency,  that  we  give  it  in  full  in  the 
Appendix.^ 

The  Directors  showed  a  much  more  sympathetic  spirit 
when  Livingstone  came  among  them,  but  meanwhile,  as 
he  tells  us  in  his  book,  his  old  feeling  of  independence 
had  returned,  and  it  did  not  seem  probable  that  he  would 
remain  in  the  same  relation  to  the  Society. 

After  Livingstone  had  been  six  weeks  at  Quilimane, 
H.M.  brig  "  Frolic"  arrived,  with  ample  supplies  for  all 
his  need,  and  took  him  to  the  Mauritius,  where  he  arrived 
on  12th  August,  1856.  It  was  during  this  voyage  that 
the  lamentable  insanity  and  suicide  of  his  native  attendant 
Sekwebu  occurred,  of  which  we  have  an  account  in  the 
Missionary  Travels.     At  the  Mauritius  he  was  the  guest  of 

Appendix  No.  III. 


FROM  LOANDA  TO  QUILIMANE,  213 

General  Hay,  from  whom  he  received  the  greatest  kind- 
ness, and  so  rapid  was  his  recovery  from  an  affection  of 
the  spleen  which  his  numerous  fevers  had  bequeathed, 
that  before  he  left  the  island  he  wrote  to  Commodore 
Trotter  and  other  friends  that  he  was  perfectly  well,  and 
"  quite  ready  to  go  back  to  Africa  again."  This,  however, 
was  not  to  be  just  yet.  In  November  he  sailed  through 
the  Red  Sea,  on  the  homeward  route.  He  had  expected 
to  land  at  Southampton,  and  there  Mrs.  Livingstone  and 
other  friends  had  gone  to  welcome  him.  But  the  perils 
of  travel  were  not  yet  over.  A  serious  accident  befell  the 
ship,  which  might  have  been  followed  by  fatal  results  but 
for  that  good  Providence  that  held  the  life  of  Livingstone 
so  carefully.  Writing  to  Mrs.  Livingstone  from  the  Bay 
of  Tunis  (27th  November,  1856),  he  says : 

"  "We  had  very  rough  weather  after  leaving  Malta,  and  yesterday  ^':- 
midday  the  shaft  of  the  engine — an  enormous  mass  of  malleable  iron^ 
broke  with  a  sort  of  oblique  fracture,  evidently  from  the  terrific  strains 
which  the  tremendous  seas  inflicted  as  they  thumped  and  tossed  this 
gigantic  vessel  like  a  plaything.  We  were  near  the  island  called 
Zembra,  which  is  in  sight  of  the  Bay  of  Tunis.  The  wind,  which  had 
been  a  full  gale  ahead  when  we  did  not  require  it,  now  fell  to  a  dead 
calm,  and  a  current  was  drifting  our  gallant  ship,  with  her  sails  flap- 
ping all  helplessly,  against  the  rocks ;  the  boats  were  provisioned, 
watered,  and  armed,  the  number  each  was  to  carry  arranged  (the 
women  and  children  to  go  in  first,  of  course),  when  most  providentially 
a  wind  sprung  up  and  carried  us  out  of  danger  into  the  Bay  of  Tunis, 
where  I  now  write.  The  whole  affair  was  managed  by  Captain  Powell 
most  admirably.  He  was  assisted  by  two  gentlemen  whom  we  all 
admire — Captain  Tregear  of  the  same  Company,  and  Lieutenant  Chim- 
nis  of  the  Royal  Navy,  and  though  they  and  the  sailors  knew  that  the 
vessel  was  so  near  destruction  as  to  render  it  certain  that  we  should 
scarcely  clear  her  in  the  boats  before  the  swell  would  have  overwhelmed 
her,  all  was  managed  so  quietly  that  none  of  us  passengers  knew  much 
about  it.  Though  we  saw  the  preparation,  no  alarm  spread  among  us. 
The  Company  will  do  everything  in  their  power  to  forward  us  quickly 
and  safely.  I'm  only  sorry  for  your  sake,  but  patience  is  a  great  virtue, 
you  know.  Captain  Tregear  has  been  six  years  away  from  his  family, 
I  only  four  and  a  half." 


214  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

The  pa^esengers  were  sent  on  via  Marseilles,  and  Living- 
stone prooeeded  homeward  by  Paris  and  Dover. 

At  last  he  reached  "  dear  old  England"  on  the  9th  of 
December,  1856.  Tidings  of  a  great  sorrow  had  reached 
him  on  the  way.  At  Cairo  he  heard  of  the  death  of  his 
father.  He  had  been  ill  a  fortnight,  and  died  full  of  faith 
and  peace.  "  You  wished  so  much  to  see  David,"  said  his 
daughter  to  him  as  his  life  was  ebbing  away.  "  Ay,  very 
much,  very  much;  but  the  will  of  the  Lord  be  done.'* 
Then  after  a  pause  he  said,  "  But  I  think  I'll  know  what- 
ever is  worth  knowing  about  him.  When  you  see  him, 
tell  him  I  think  so."  David  had  not  less  eagerly  desired 
to  sit  once  more  at  the  fireside  and  tell  his  father  of  all 
that  had  befallen  him  on  the  way.  On  both  sides  the 
desire  had  to  be  classed  among  hopes  unfulfilled.  But  on 
both  sides  there  was  a  vivid  impression  that  the  joy  so 
narrowly  missed  on  earth  would  be  found  in  a  purer  form 
in  the  next  stage  of  being. 


w- 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  215 


CHAPTER  X, 

FIRST  VISIT  HOME. 
A.D.  1856-1857. 

Mrs.  Livingstone — Her  intense  anxieties — Her  poetical  welcome — Congratula. 
tory  letters  from  Mrs.  and  Dr.  Moffat — Meeting  of  welcome  of  Royal 
Geographical  Society — of  London  Missionary  Society — Meeting  in  Mansion 
House — Enthusiastic  public  meeting  at  Cape  Town — Livingstone  visits 
Hamilton — Returns  to  London  to  write  his  book — Letter  to  Mr.  Maclear— 
Dr.  Risdon  Bennett's  reminiscences  of  this  period — Mr.  Frederick  Fitch's — 
Interview  with  Prince  Consort — Honors — Publication  and  great  success  of 
Missionary  Travels — Character  and  design  of  the  book — Why  it  was  not 
more  oi'  a  missionary  record — Handsome  conduct  of  publisher — Generous 
use  of  the  profits — Letter  to  a  lady  in  Carlisle  vindicating  the  character  of 
bis  speeches. 

The  years  that  had  elapsed  since  Dr.  Livingstone  bade 
his  wife  fareTrell  at  Cape  Town  had  been  to  her  years  of 
deep  and  often  terrible  anxiety.  Letters,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  often  lost,  and  none  seem  more  frequently  to  have 
gone  missing  than  those  between  him  and  her.  A  stranger 
in  England,  without  a  home,  broken  in  health,  with  a 
family  of  four  to  care  for,  often  without  tidings  of  her 
husband  for  great  stretches  of  time,  and  harassed  with 
anxieties  and  apprehensions  that  sometimes  proved  too 
much  for  her  faith,  the  strain  on  her  was  very  great. 
Those  who  knew  her  in  Africa,  when,  "queen  of  the 
wagon,"  and  full  of  life,  she  directed  the  arrangements 
and  sustained  the  spirits  of  a  whole  party,  would  hardly 
have  thought  her  the  same  person  in  England.  When 
Livingstone  had  been  longest  unheard  of,  her  heart  sank 
altogether ;  but  through  prayer,  tranquillity  of  mind  re- 
turned, even  before  the  arrival  of  any  letter  announcing 


216  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

his  safety.  She  had  been  waiting  for  him  at  Southamp- 
ton, and,  owing  to  the  casualty  in  the  Bay  of  Tunis,  he 
arrived  at  Dover,  but  as  soon  as  possible  he  was  with  her, 
reading  the  poetical  welcome  which  she  had  prepared  in 
the  hope  that  they  would  never  part  again : 

"  A  hundred  thousand  welcomes,  and  it's  time  for  you  to  come 
From  the  far  land  of  the  foreigner,  to  your  country  and  your  home. 

0  long  as  we  were  parted,  ever  since  you  went  away, 

1  never  passed  a  dreamless  night,  or  knew  an  easy  day. 

Do  you  think  I  would  reproach  you  with  the  sorrows  that  I  bore? 

Since  the  sorrow  is  all  over,  now  I  have  you  here  once  more, 

And  there's  nothing  but  the  gladness,  and  the  love  within  my  heart, 

And  the  hope  so  sweet  and  certain  that  again  we'll  never  part. 

««*««*■»•»• 

A  hundred  thousand  welcomes!  how  my  heart  is  gushing  o'er 
With  the  love  and  joy  and  wonder  thus  to  see  your  face  once  morew 
How  did  I  live  without  you  these  long  long  years  of  woe? 
It  seems  as  if  'twould  kill  me  to  be  parted  from  you  now. 

You'll  never  part  me,  darling,  there's  a  promise  in  your  eye  \ 
I  may  tend  you  while  I'm  living,  you  may  watch  me  when  I  die; 
And  if  death  but  kindly  lead  me  to  the  blessed  home  on  high, 
What  a  hundred  thousand  welcomes  will  await  you  in  the  sky  I 

Having  for  once  lifted  the  domestic  veil,  we  cannot 
resist  the  temptation  to  look  into  another  corner  of  the 
home  circle.  Among  the  letters  of  congratulation  that 
poured  in  at  this  time,  none  was  more  sincere  or  touch- 
ing  than  that  which  Mrs.  Livingstone  received  from  her 
mother,  Mrs.  Moffat.^  In  the  fullnes  of  her  congratulations 
she  does  not  forget  the  dark  shadow  that  falls  on  the  mis- 
sionary's wife  when  the  time  comes  for  her  to  go  back 

*  We  have  been  greatly  impressed  by  Mrs,  Moffat's  letters.  She  was 
evidently  a  woman  of  remarkable  power.  If  her  life  had  been  published,  we 
are  convinced  that  it  would  have  been  a  notable  one  in  missionary  biography. 
Heart  and  head  were  evidently  of  no  common  calibre.  Perhaps  it  is  not  yeC 
|cx>  late  for  some  friend  to  think  of  this. 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  217 

with  her  husband  to  their  foreign  home,  and  requires  her 
to  pa-i^'t  with  her  children ;  tears  and  smiles  mingle  in  Mrs. 
Moffat's  letter  as  she  reminds  her  daughter  that  they  that 
rejoice  need  to  be  as  though  they  rejoiced  not: 

^^Kurumauy  Dece^mher  4,  1856. — My  dearest  Mary, — In  proportion 
to  the  anxiety  I  have  experienced  about  you  and  your  dear  husband  for 
some  years  past,  so  now  is  my  joy  and  satisfaction;  even  though  we 
have  not  yet  heard  the  glad  tidings  of  your  having  really  met,  but  this 
for  the  present  we  take  for  granted.  Having  from  the  first  been  in  a 
subdued  and  chastened  state  of  mind  on  the  subject,  I  endeavor  still  to 
be  moderate  in  my  joy.  With  regard  to  you  both  ofttimes  has  the 
sentence  of  death  been  passed  in  my  mind,  and  at  such  seasons  I  dared 
not,  desired  not,  to  rebel,  submissively  leaving  all  to  the  Divine  dis- 
posal; but  I  now  feel  that  this  has  been  a  suitable  preparation  for  what 
is  before  me,  having  to  contemplate  a  complete  separation  from  you  till 
that  day  when  we  meet  with  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  in  the 
kingdom  of  our  Father.  Yes,  I  do  feel  solemn  at  death,  but  there  is 
no  melancholy  about  it,  for  what  is  our  life,  so  short  and  so  transient? 
And  seeing  it  is  so,  we  should  be  happy  to  do  or  to  suffer  as  much  as 
we  can  for  him  who  bought  us  with  his  blood.  Should  you  go  to  those 
wilds  which  God  has  enabled  your  husband,  through  numerous  dangers 
and  deaths,  to  penetrate,  there  to  spend  the  remainder  of  your  life,  and 
as  a  consequence  there  to  suffer  manifold  privations,  in  addition  to 
those  trials  through  which  you  have  already  passed — and  they  have 
not  been  few  (for  you  had  a  hard  life  in  this  interior) — you  will  not 
think  all  too  muchj  when  you  stand  with  that  multitude  who  have 
washed  their  robes  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  1 

"  Yet,  my  dear  Mary,  while  we  are  yet  in  the  flesh  my  heart  will 
yearn  over  you.  You  are  my  own  dear  child,  my  first-born,  and  recent 
circumstances  have  had  a  tendency  to  make  me  feel  still  more  tenderly 
toward  you,  and  deeply  as  I  have  sympathized  with  you  for  the  last 
few  years,  I  shall  not  cease  to  do  so  for  the  future.  Already  is  my 
imagination  busy  picturing  the  various  scenes  through  which  you  must 
pass,  from  the  first  transport  of  joy  on  meeting  till  that  painful  anxious 
hour  when  you  must  bid  adieu  to  your  darlings,  with  faint  hopes  of 
ever  seeing  them  again  in  this  life ;  and  then,  what  you  may  both  have 
to  pass  through  in  those  inhospitable  regions.     .     .     . 

"  From  what  I  saw  in  Mr.  Livingston's  letter  to  Robert,  I  was 
shocked  to  think  that  that  poor  head,  in  the  prime  of  »anhood,  was  so 
like  my  own,  who  am  literally  worn  out.  The  symptoms  he  describes 
are  so  like  my  own.  Now,  with  a  little  rest  and  relaxation,  having 
vouth  on  his  side,  he  might  regain  all,  but  I  cannot  help  fearing  fot 
19 


218  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

him  if  he  dashes  at  once  into  hardships  again.  He  is  certainly  the 
wonder  of  his  age,  and  with  a  little  prudence  as  regards  his  health,  the 
stores  of  information  he  now  possesses  might  be  turned  to  a  mighty 
account  for  poor  wretched  Africa.  .  .  ,  We  do  not  yet  see  how 
Mr.  L.  will  get  on — the  case  seems  so  complex.  I  feel,  as  I  have  often 
done,  that  as  regards  ourselves  it  is  a  subject  more  for  prayer  than  for 
deliberation,  separated  as  we  are  by  such  distances,  and  such  a  tardy 
and  eccentric  post.  I  used  to  imagine  that  when  he  was  once  got  out 
safely  from  this  dark  continent  we  should  only  have  to  praise  God  for 
all  his  mercies  to  him  and  to  us  all,  and  for  what  He  had  effected  by 
him ;  but  now  I  see  we  must  go  on  seeking  the  guidance  and  direction 
of  his  providential  hand,  and  sustaining  and  preventing  mercy.  We 
cannot  cease  to  remember  you  daily,  and  thus  our  sympathy  will  be 
kept  alive  with  you.     .     .     ." 

Dr.  Moffatt's  congratulation  to  his  son-in-law  was  calm 
and  hearty ; 

"  Your  explorations  have  created  immense  interest,  and  especially  in 
England,  and  that  man  must  be  made  of  bend-leather  who  can  remain 
unmoved  at  the  rehearsal  even  of  a  tithe  of  your  daring  enterprises. 
The  honors  awaiting  you  at  home  would  be  enough  to  make  a  score  of 
light  heads  dizzy,  but  I  have  no  fear  of  their  affecting  your  upper  story, 
beyond  showing  you  that  your  labors  to  lay  open  the  recesses  of  the 
rast  interior  have  been  appreciated.  It  will  be  almost  too  much  for 
4ear  Mary  to  hear  that  you  are  verily  unscathed.  She  has  had  many 
lo  sympathize  with  her,  and  I  daresay  many  have  called  you  a  very 
naughty  man  for  thus  having  exposed  your  life  a  thousand  times.  Be 
Ihat  as  it  may,  you  have  succeeded  beyond  the  most  sanguine  expecta- 
tions in  laying  open  a  world  of  immortal  beings,  all  needing  the  gospel, 
and  at  a  time,  now  that  war  is  over,  when  people  may  exert  their  exer- 
gies  on  an  object  compared  with  which  that  which  has  occupied  th« 
master  minds  of  Europe,  and  expended  so  much  money,  and  shed  so 
much  blood,  is  but  a  phantom." 

On  the  9th  of  December,  as  we  have  seen,  Livingstone 
arrived  at  London.  He  went  first  to  Southampton,  where 
his  wife  was  waiting  for  him,  and  on  his  return  to  London 
was  quickly  in  communication  with  Sir  Roderick  Murchi- 
son.  On  the  15th  December  the  Koyal  Geographic  Society 
held  a  special  meeting  to  welcome  him.  Sir  Roderick 
was  in  the  chair;  the  attendance  was  numerous  and  di^ 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  219 

tinguished,  and  included  some  of  Livingstone's  previous 
fellow-travelers,  Colonel  Steele,  Captain  Vardon,  and  Mr. 
Oswell.  The  President  referred  to  the  meeting  of  May, 
1855,  when  the  Victoria  or  Patron's  medal  had  been 
awarded  to  Livingstone  for  his  journey  from  the  Cape  to 
Linyanti  and  Loanda.  Now  Livingstone  had  added  to 
that  feat  the  journey  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  at  Loanda 
to  the  Indian  Ocean  at  Quilimane,  and  during  his  several 
journeys  had  traveled  over  not  less  than  eleven  thousand 
miles  of  African  ground.  Surpassing  the  French  mission- 
ary travelers,  Hue  and  Gabet,  he  had  determined,  by 
astronomical  observations,  the  site  of  numerous  places, 
hills,  rivers,  and  lakes,  previously  unknown.  He  had 
seized  every  opportunity  of  describing  the  physical  struct- 
ure, geology,  and  climatology  of  the  countries  traversed, 
and  making  known  their  natural  products  and  capabil- 
ities. He  had  ascertained  by  experience,  what  had  been 
only  conjectured  previously,  that  the  interior  of  Africa 
was  a  plateau  intersected  by  various  lakes  and  rivers,  the 
waters  of  which  escaped  to  the  Eastern  and  Western 
oceans  by  deep  rents  in  the  flanking  hills.  Great  though 
these  achievements  were,  the  most  honorable  of  all  Liv- 
ingstone's acts  had  yet  to  be  mentioned — the  fidelity  that 
kept  his  promise  to  the  natives,  who,  having  accompanied 
him  to  St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  were  reconducted  by  him 
from  that  city  to  their  homes. 

"  Eare  fortitude  and  virtue  must  our  medalist  have  possessed,  when, 
having  struggled  at  the  imminent  risk  of  his  life  through  such  obsta- 
cles, and  when,  escaping  from  the  interior,  he  had  been  received  with 
true  kindness  by  our  old  allies,  the  Portuguese  at  Angola,  he  nobly 
resolved  to  redeem  his  promise  amd  retrace  his  steps  to  the  interior  of 
the  vast  continent  I  How  much  indeed  must  the  influence  of  the 
British  name  be  enhanced  throughout  Africa,  when  it  has  been  promul- 
gated that  our  missionary  has  thus  kept  his  plighted  word  to  the  poor 
natives  who  faithfully  stood  by  him  I" 

On  receiving  the  medal,  Livingstone  apologized  for  his 


220  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

rustiness  in  the  use  of  his  native  tongue;  said  that  he  had 
only  done  his  duty  as  a  Christian  missionary  in  opening 
up  a  part  of  Africa  to  the  sympathy  of  Christendom :  that 
Steele,  Vardon,  or  Oswell  might  have  done  all  that  he  had 
done ;  that  as  yet  he  was  only  buckling  on  his  armor,  and 
therefore  in  no  condition  to  speak  boastfully;  and  that  the 
enterprise  would  never  be  complete  till  the  slave-trade 
was  abolished,  and  the  whole  country  opened  up  to  com- 
merce and  Christianity. 

Among  the  distinguished  men  who  took  part  in  the 
conversation  that  followed  was  Professor  Owen.  He  bore 
testimony  to  the  value  of  Livingstone's  contributions  to 
zoology  and  palaeontology,  not  less  cordial  than  Sir  Rod- 
erick Murchison  had  borne  to  his  service  to  geography. 
He  had  listened  with  very  intense  interest  to  the  sketches 
of  these  magnificent  scenes  of  animal  life  that  his  old  and 
most  esteemed  friend  had  given  them.  He  cordially 
hoped  that  many  more  such  contributions  would  follow, 
and  expressed  his  admiration  of  the  moral  qualities  of  the 
man  who  had  taken  such  pains  to  keep  his  word. 

In  the  recognition  by  other  gentlemen  of  Dr.  Living- 
stone's labors,  much  stress  was  laid  on  the  scientific  accu- 
racy with  which  he  had  laid  down  every  point  over  which 
he  had  traveled.  Thanks  were  given  to  the  Portuguese 
authorities  in  Africa  for  the  remarkable  kindness  which 
they  had  invariably  shown  him.  Mr.  Consul  Brand 
reported  tidings  from  Mr.  Gabriel  at  Loanda,  to  the 
effect  that  a  company  of  Sekeletu's  people  had  arrived  at 
Loanda,  with  a  cargo  of  ivory,  and  though  they  had  not 
been  very  successful  in  business,  they  had  shown  the 
practicabilit}^  of  the  route.  He  added,  that  Dr.  Living- 
stone, at  Loanda,  had  written  some  letters  to  a  newspaper, 
which  had  given  such  an  impetus  to  literary  taste  there, 
that  a  new  journal  had  been  started — the  Loanda  Aurora. 

On  one  other  point  there  was  a  most  cordial  expression 
of  feeling,  especially  by  those  who  had  themselves  been  in 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  221 

South  Africa, — gratitude  for  the  unbounded  kindness  and 
hospitality  that  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone  had  shown  to 
South  African  travelers  in  the  neighborhood  of  their 
home.  Happily  Mrs.  Livingstone  was  present,  and  heard 
this  acknowledgment  of  her  kindness. 

Next  day,  16th  December,  Dr.  Livingstone  had  his 
reception  from  the  London  Missionary  Society  in  Free- 
mason's Hall.    Lord  Shaftesbury  was  in  the  chair ; 

"What  better  thing  can  we  do,"  asked  the  noble  Earl,  "than  to 
welcome  such  a  man  to  the  shores  of  our  country  ?  What  better  than 
to  receive  him  with  thanksgiving  and  rejoicings  that  he  is  spared  to 
refresh  us  with  his  presence,  and  give  his  strength  to  future  exertions? 
What  season  more  appropriate  than  this,  when  at  every  hearth,  and  in 
every  congregation  of  worshipers,  the  name  of  Christ  will  be  honored 
with  more  than  ordinary  devotion,  to  receive  a  man  whose  life  and 
labors  have  been  in  humble,  hearty,  and  willing  obedience  to  the 
angels'  song,  *  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  on  earth  peace,  good-will 
toward  men.' " 

In  reply,  Livingstone  acknowledged  the  kindness  of  the 
Directors,  with  whom,  for  sixteen  years,  he  had  never  had 
a  word  of  difference.  He  referred  to  the  slowness  of  the 
African  tribes,  in  explanation  of  the  comparatively  small 
progress  of  the  gospel  among  them.  He  cordially  acknowl- 
edged the  great  services  of  the  British  squadron  on  the 
West  Coast  in  the  repressing  of  the  slave-trade.  He  had 
been  told  that  to  make  such  explorations  as  he  was 
engaged  in  was  only  a  tempting  of  Providence,  but  such 
ridiculous  assertions  were  only  the  utterances  of  the  weaker 
brethren. 

Lord  Shaftesbury's  words  at  the  close  of  this  meeting,  in 
honor  of  Mrs.  Livingstone,  deserve  to  be  perpetuated : 

"That  lady,"  he  said,  "was  born  with  one  distinguished  name, 
which  she  had  changed  for  another.  She  was  born  a  Moffat,  and  she 
became  a  Livingstone.  She  cheered  the  early  part  of  our  friend's 
career  by  her  spirit,  her  counsel,  and  her  society.  Afterward,  when 
she  reached  this  country,  she  passed  many  years  with  her  children  in 


222  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

solitude  and  anxiety,  suffering  the  greatest  fears  for  the  welfare  of  hei 
husband,  and  yet  enduring  all  with  patience  and  resignation,  and  even 
joy,  because  she  had  surrendered  her  best  feelings,  and  sacrificed  her 
own  private  interests,  to  the  advancement  of  civilization  and  the  great 
interests  of  Christianity." 

A  more  general  meeting  was  held  in  the  Mansion  House 
on  the  5th  of  January,  to  consider  the  propriety  of  pre- 
senting a  testimonial  to  Dr.  Livingstone.  It  was  addressed 
y  the  Bishop  of  London,  Mr.  Raikes  Currie,  and  others. 

Meanwhile,  a  sensible  impulse  was  given  to  the  scientific 
enthusiasm  for  Livingstone  by  the  arrival  of  the  report  of 
a  great  meeting  held  in  Africa  itself^  in  honor  of  the 
missionary  explorer.  At  Cape  Town,  on  12th  November, 
1856,  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  Sir  George  Grey,  the 
Colonial  Secretary,  the  Astronomer-Royal,  the  Attorney- 
General,  Mr.  Rutherfoord,  the  Bishop,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Thompson,  and  others,  vied  with  each  other  in  expressing' 
their  sense  of  Livingstone's  character  and  work.  The 
testimony  of  the  Astronomer-Royal  to  Livingstone's  emi- 
nence as  an  astronomical  observer  was  even  more  emphatic 
than  Murchison's  and  Owen's  to  his  attainments  in  geog- 
raphy and  natural  history.  Going  over  his  whole  career, 
Mr.  Maclear  showed  his  unexampled  achievements  in 
accurate  lunar  observation.  "  I  never  knew  a  man,"  he 
said,  "  who,  knowing  scarcely  anything  of  the  method  of 
making  geographical  observations,  or  laying  down  posi- 
tions, became  so  soon  an  adept,  that  he  could  take  the 
complete  lunar  observation,  and  altitudes  for  time,  within 
fifteen  minutes."  His  observations  of  the  course  of  the 
Zambesi,  from  Sesheke  to  its  confluence  with  the  Lonta, 
were  considered  by  the  Astronomer-Royal  to  be  "  the  finest 
specimens  of  sound  geographical  observation  he  ever  met 
with." 

"  To  give  an  idea  of  the  laboriousness  of  this  branch  of  his  work,'*^ 
he  adds,  "  on  an  average  each  lunar  distance  consists  of  five  partial 
obserTatioDS,  and  there  are  148  sets  of  distances,  being  740  contacts,*^ 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  228 

and  there  are  two  altitudes  of  each  object  before,  and  two  after,  which, 
together  with  altitudes  for  time,  amount  to  2812  partial  observations. 
But  that  is  not  the  whole  of  his  observations.  Some  of  them  intrusted 
to  an  Arab  have  not  been  received,  and  in  reference  to  those  trans- 
mitted he  says,  *  I  have  taken  others  which  I  do  not  think  it  necessary 
to  send.'  How  completely  all  this  stamps  the  impress  of  Livingstone 
on  the  interior  of  South  Africa  I  ...  I  say,  what  that  man  has 
done  is  unprecedented.  .  .  .  You  could  go  to  any  point  across  the 
entire  continent,  along  Livingstone's  track,  and  feel  certain  of  your 
position."  * 

Following  this  unrivaled  eulogium  on  the  scientific 
powers  of  Livingstone  came  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Thomp- 
son to  his  missionary  ardor : 

*I  am  in  a  position  to  express  my  earnest  conviction,  formed  in 
long,  intimate,  unreserved  communications  with  him,  personally  and 
by  letter,  that  in  the  privations,  sufferings,  and  dangers  he  has  passed 
through,  during  the  last  eight  years,  he  has  not  been  actuated  by  mere 
curiosity,  or  the  love  of  adventure,  or  the  thirst  for  applause,  or  by  any 
other  object,  however  laudable  in  itself,  less  than  his  avowed  one  as  a 
messenger  of  Christian  love  from  the  Churches.  If  ever  there  was  a 
^ar  who,  by  realizing  the  obligations  of  his  sacred  calling  as  a  Chris- 
tiaiN.  missionary,  and  intelligently  comprehending  its  object,  sought  to 
pursue  it  to  a  successful  issue,  such  a  man  is  Dr.  Livingstone.  The 
spirit  in  which  he  engages  in  his  work  may  be  seen  in  the  following 
extract  from  one  of  his  letters  :  ^  You  kindly  say  you  fear  for  the  result 
of  my  going  in  alone.  I  hope  I  am  in  the  way  of  duty ;  my  own  con- 
viction that  such  is  the  case  has  never  wavered.  I  am  doing  something 
lor  God.  I  have  preached  the  gospel  in  many  a  spot  where  the  name 
<*f  Christ  has  never  been  heard,  and  I  would  wish  to  do  still  more  in 
the  way  of  reducing  the  Barotse  language,  if  I  had  not  suffered  so 

It  seems  unaccountable  that  in  the  face  of  such  unrivaled  testimonies,  re- 
flections should  continue  to  be  cast  on  Livingstone's  scientific  accuracy,  even 
so  late  as  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Sheffield  in  1879.  The 
family  of  the  late  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  have  sent  home  his  collection  of  Liv- 
ingstone's papers.  They  fill  a  box  which  one  man  could  with  difficulty  carry. 
And  their  mass  is  far  from  their  most  striking  quality.  The  evidence  of  labor- 
ious, painstaking  care  to  be  accurate  is  almost  unprecedented.  Folio  volumes 
of  pages  covered  with  figures  show  how  much  time  and  labor  must  have  beea 
spent  in  these  computations.  Explanatory  remarks  often  indicate  the  particu- 
lars of  the  observation. 


224  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

severely  from  fever.  Exhaustion  produced  vertigo,  causing  me,  if  \ 
looked  suddenly  up,  almost  to  lose  consciousness ;  this  made  me  give 
up  sedentary  work ;  but  I  hope  God  will  accept  of  what  I  can  do.'  " 

A  third  gentleman  at  this  meeting,  Mr.  Rutherfoord, 
who  had  known  Livingstone  for  many  years,  besides 
describing  him  as  "one  of  the  most  honorable,  benevo- 
lent, conscientious  men  I  ever  met  with,"  bore  testimony 
to  his  capacity  in  mercantile  affairs ;  not  exercised  in  his 
own  interest,  but  in  that  of  others.  It  was  Mr.  Ruther- 
foord  who,  when  Livingstone  was  at  the  Cape  in  1852, 
entered  into  his  plans  for  supplanting  the  slave-trade  by 
lawful  traffic,  and  at  his  suggestion  engaged  George 
Fleming  to  go  north  with  him  as  a  trader,  and  try  the 
experiment.  The  project  was  not  very  successful,  owing 
to  innumerable  unforeseen  worries,  and  especially  the  ras- 
cality of  Fleming's  men.  Livingstone  found  it  impossible 
to  take  Fleming  to  the  coast,  and  had  therefore  to  send 
him  back,  but  he  did  his  utmost  to  prevent  loss  to  his 
friend;  and  thus,  as  Mr.  Rutherfoord  said,  "at  the  very 
time  that  he  was  engaged  in  such  important  duties,  and 
exposed  to  such  difficulties,  he  found  time  to  fulfill  his 
promise  to  do  what  he  could  to  save  me  from  loss,  to 
attend  to  a  matter  quite  foreign  to  his  usual  avocations, 
and  in  which  he  had  no  personal  interest;  and  by  his 
energy  and  good  sense,  and  self-denying  exertions,  to 
render  the  plan,  if  not  perfectly  successful,  yet  by  no 
.means  a  failure." 

Traveler,  geographer,  zoologist,  astronomer,  missionary, 
physician,  and  mercantile  director,  did  ever  man  sustain 
so  many  characters  at  once  ?  Or  did  ever  man  perform 
the  duties  of  each  with  such  painstaking  accuracy  and  so 
great  success? 

As  soon  as  he  could  tear  himself  from  his  first  engage- 
ments, he  ran  down  to  Hamilton  to  see  his  mother,  chil- 
dren, and  other  relatives.  His  father's  empty  chair  deeply 
affected  him.    "  The  first  evening,"  writes  one  of  his  sisters, 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  225 

"he  asked  all  about  his  illness  and  death.  One  of  us 
remarking  that  after  he  knew  he  was  dying  his  spirits 
seemed  to  rise,  David  burst  into  tears.  At  family  worship 
that  evening  he  said  with  deep  feeling — '  We  bless  thee, 
O  Lord,  for  our  parents ;  we  give  thee  thanks  for  the  dead 
who  has  died  in  the  Lord.' " 

At  first  Livingstone  thought  that  his  stay  in  this  coun- 
try could  be  only  for  three  or  four  months,  as  he  was 
eager  to  be  at  Quilimane  before  the  unhealthy  season  set 
in,  and  thus  fulfill  his  promise  to  return  to  his  Makololo 
at  Tette.  But  on  receiving  an  assurance  from  the  Portu- 
guese Government  (which,  however,  was  never  fulfilled  hy 
them)  that  his  men  would  be  looked  after,  he  made  up  his 
mind  for  a  somewhat  longer  stay.  But  it  could  not  be 
called  rest.  As  soon  as  he  could  settle  down  he  had  to  set 
to  work  with  a  book.  So  long  before  as  May,  1856,  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison  had  written  to  him  that  "  Mr.  John 
Murray,  the  great  publisher,  is  most  anxious  to  induce  you 
to  put  together  all  your  data,  and  to  make  a  good  book," 
adding  his  own  strong  advice  to  comply  with  the  request. 
If  he  ever  doubted  the  propriety  of  writing  the  book,  the 
doubt  must  have  vanished,  not  only  in  view  of  the  un- 
equaled  interest  excited  by  the  subject,  but  also  of  the 
readiness  of  unprincipled  adventurers,  and  even  some 
respectable  publishers,  to  circulate  narratives  often  mythi- 
cal and  quite  unauthorized. 

The  early  part  of  the  year  1857  was  mainly  occupied 
with  the  labor  of  writing.  For  this  he  had  materials  in 
the  Journals  which  he  had  kept  so  carefully;  but  the 
business  of  selection  and  supplementing  was  laborious, 
and  the  task  of  arrangement  and  transcription  very  irk- 
some. In  fact,  this  task  tried  the  patience  of  Livingstone 
more  than  any  which  he  had  yet  undertaken,  and  he 
used  to  say  that  he  would  rather  cross  Africa  than  write 
another  book.  His  experience  of  book-making  increased 
his  respect  for  authors  and  authoresses  a  hundred-fold  I 


226  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

We  are  not,  however,  inclined  to  think  that  this  trial 
was  due  to  the  cause  which  Livingstone  assigned, — his 
want  of  experience,  and  want  of  command  over  the 
English  tongue.  He  was  by  no  means  an  inexperienced 
writer.  He  had  written  large  volumes  of  Journals,  me- 
moirs for  the  Geographical  Society,  articles  on  African 
Missions,  letters  for  the  Missionary  Society,  and  private 
letters  without  end,  each  usually  as  long  as  a  pamphlet. 
He  was  master  of  a  clear,  simple,  idiomatic  style,  well 
fitted  to  record  the  incidents  of  a  journey — sometimes 
poetical  in  its  vivid  pictures,  often  brightening  into  humor, 
and  sometimes  deepening  into  pathos.  Viewing  it  page  by 
page,  the  style  of  the  Missionary  Travels  is  admirable,  the 
ehief  defect  being  want  of  perspective ;  the  book  is  more 
a  collection  of  pieces  than  an  organized  whole:  a  fault 
inevitable,  perhaps,  in  some  measure,  from  its  nature,  but 
aggravated,  as  we  believe,  by  the  haste  and  pressure  under 
which  it  had  to  be  written.  In  his  earlier  private  letters, 
Livingstone,  in  his  single-hearted  desire  to  rouse  the  world 
on  the  subject  of  Africa,  used  to  regret  that  he  could  not 
write  in  such  a  way  as  to  command  general  attention :  had 
he  been  master  of  the  flowing  periods  of  the  Edinburgh 
Beview,  he  thought  he  could  have  done  much  more  good. 
In  point  of  fact,  if  he  had  had  the  pen  of  Samuel  Johnson, 
or  the  tongue  of  Edmund-  Burke,  he  would  not  have  made 
the  impression  he  did.  His  simple  style  and  plain  speech 
were  eminently  in  harmony  with  his  truthful,  unexagger- 
ating  nature,  and  showed  that  he  neither  wrote  nor  spoke 
for  effect,  but  simply  to  utter  truth.  What  made  his  work 
of  composition  irksome  was,  on  the  one  hand,  the  fear  that 
he  was  not  doing  it  well,  and  on  the  other,  the  necessity 
of  doing  it  quickly.  He  had  always  a  dread  that  his 
English  was  not  up  to  the  critical  mark,  and  yet  he  was 
obliged  to  hurry  on,  and  leave  the  English  as  it  dropped 
from  his  pen.  He  had  no  time  to  plan,  to  shape,  to 
organize;  the  architectural  talent  could  not  be  brought 


( 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  227 

into  play.  Add  to  this  that  he  had  been  so  accustomed  to 
open-air  life  and  physical  exercise,  that  the  close  air  and 
sedentary  attitude  of  the  study  must  have  been  exceed- 
ingly irksome ;  so  that  it  is  hardly  less  wonderful  that  his 
health  stood  the  confinement  of  book-making  in  England, 
than  that  it  survived  the  tear  and  wear,  labor  and  sorrow, 
of  all  his  journeys  in  Africa. 

An  extract  from  a  letter  to  Mr.  Maclear,  on  the  eve  of 
his  beginning  his  book  (21st  January,  1857),  will  show  how 
his  thoughts  were  running : 

"  I  begin  to-morrow  to  write  my  book,  and  as  I  bave  a  large  party 
of  men  (110)  waiting  for  me  at  Tette,  and  I  promised  to  join  them  in 
April  next,  you  will  see  I  shall  have  enough  to  do  to  get  over  my  woric 
here  before  the  end  of  the  month.  .  .  .  Many  thanks  for  all  th^ 
kind  things  you  said  at  the  Cape  Town  meeting.  Here  they  laud  me 
till  I  shut  my  eyes,  for  only  trying  to  do  my  duty.  They  ought  to  vote 
thanks  to  the  Boers  who  set  me  free  to  discover  the  fine  new  country. 
They  were  determined  to  shut  the  country,  and  I  was  determined  to 
open  it.  They  boasted  to  the  Portuguese  that  they  had  expelled  two 
missionaries,  and  outwitted  themselves  rather.  I  got  the  gold  medal, 
as  you  predicted,  and  the  freedom  of  the  town  of  Hamilton,  which 
insures  me  protection  from  the  payment  of  jail  fees  if  put  in  prison  I" 

In  writing  his  book,  he  sometimes  worked  in  the  house 
of  a  friend,  but  generally  in  a  London  or  suburban  lodg- 
ing, often  with  his  children  about  him,  and  all  their  noise; 
for,  as  in  the  Blantyre  mill,  he  could  abstract  his  attention 
from  sounds  of  whatever  kind,  and  go  on  calmly  with  his 
work.  Busy  though  he  was,  this  must  liave  been  one  of 
the  happiest  times  in  his  life.  Some  of  his  children  still 
remember  his  walks  and  romps  with  them  in  the  Barnet 
woods,  near  which  they  lived  part  of  the  time — how  he 
would  suddenly  plunge  into  the  ferny  thicket,  and  set 
them  looking  for  him,  as  people  looked  for  him  afterward 
when  he  disappeared  in  Africa,  coming  out  all  at  once  at 
some  unexpected  corner  of  the  thicket.  One  of  his  greatest 
troubles  was  the  penny  post.  People  used  to  ask  him  the 
most  frivolous  questions.    At  first  he  struggled  to  aiiswer 


228  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

them,  but  in  a  few  weeks  he  had  to  give  this  up  in  despair. 
The  simplicity  of  his  heart  is  seen  in  the  child-like  joy 
with  which  he  welcomes  the  early  products  of  the  spring. 
He  writes  to  Mr.  Maclear  that,  one  day  at  Professor  Owen's, 
they  had  "seen  daisies,  primroses,  hawthorns,  and  robin- 
redbreasts.  Does  not  Mrs.  Maclear  envy  us?  It  was  so 
pleasant." 

But  a  better  idea  of  his  mode  of  life  at  home  will  be 
conveyed  by  the  notes  of  some  of  the  friends  with  w^hom 
he  stayed.  For  that  purpose,  we  resume  the  recollections 
of  Dr.  Risdon  Bennett: 

"On  returning  to  England,  after  his  first  great  journey  of  discovery, 
he  and  Mrs.  Livingstone  stayed  in  my  house  for  some  time,  and  I  had 
frequent  conversations  with  him  on  subjects  connected  with  his  African 
life,  especially  on  such  as  related  to  natural  history  and  medicine,  on 
which  he  had  gathered  a  fund  of  information.  His  observation  of 
malarious  diseases,  and  the  methods  of  treatment  adopted  by  both  the 
natives  and  Europeans,  had  led  him  to  form  very  definite  and  decided 
views,  especially  in  reference  to  the  use  of  purgatives,  preliminary  to, 
and  in  conjunction  with,  quinine  and  other  acknowledged  febrifuge 
medicines.  He  had,  while  staying  with  me,  one  of  those  febrile 
attacks  to  which  persons  who  have  once  suffered  from  malarious  disease 
are  so  liable,  and  I  could  not  fail  to  remark  his  sensible  observations 
thereon,  and  his  judicious  management  of  his  sickness.  He  had  a  great 
natural  predilection  for  medical  science,  and  always  took  great  interest 
in  all  that  related  to  the  profession.  I  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to 
commit  to  writing  the  results  of  his  medical  observations  and  experience 
flraong  the  natives  of  Africa,  but  he  was  too  much  occupied  with  the 
preparation  of  his  Journal  for  the  press  to  enable  him  to  do  this. 
Moreover,  as  he  often  said,  writing  was  a  great  drudgery  to  him.  He, 
however,  attended  with  me  the  meetings  of  some  of  the  medical  societies, 
and  gave  some  verbal  accounts  of  his  medical  experience  which  greatly 
interested  his  audience.  His  remarks  on  climates,  food,  and  customs  of 
the  natives,  in  reference  to  the  origin  and  spread  of  disease,  evinced  the 
same  acuteness  of  observation  which  characterized  all  the  records  of  his 
life.  He  specially  commented  on  the  absence  of  consumption  and  all 
forms  of  tubercular  disease  among  the  natives,  and  connected  this  with 
their  constant  exposure  and  out-of-door  life. 

"After  leaving  my  house  he  had  lodgings  in  Chelsea,  and  used  fre- 
qmently  to  come  and  spend  the  Sunday  afternoon  with  my  family,  oftea 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  229 

bringing  his  sister,  who  was  staying  with  him,  and  his  two  elder  children. 
It  was  beautiful  to  observe  how  thoroughly  he  enjoyed  domestic  life  and 
the  society  of  children,  how  strong  was  his  attachment  to  his  own  family 
after  his  long  and  frequent  separations  from  them,  and  how  entirely  he 
had  retained  his  simplicity  of  character. 

"  Like  so  many  of  his  countrymen,  he  had  a  keen  sense  of  humor, 
which  frequently  came  into  play  when  relating  his  many  adventures  and 
hardships.  On  the  latter  he  never  dilated  in  the  way  of  complaint,  and 
he  had  little  sympathy  with,  or  respect  for,  those  travelers  who  did  so. 
Nor  was  he  apt  to  say  much  on  direct  religious  topics,  or  on  the  results 
of  his  missionary  efforts  as  a  Christian  teacher.  He  had  unbounded 
confidence  in  the  influence  of  Christian  character  and  principles,  and 
gave  many  illustrations  of  the  effect  produced  on  the  minds  and  conduct 
of  the  benighted  and  savage  tribes  with  whom  he  was  brought  into  con- 
tact by  his  own  unvarying  uprightness  of  conduct  and  self-denying  labor. 
The  fatherly  character  of  Grod,  his  never-failing  goodness  and  mercy, 
and  the  infinite  love  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  efficacy  of  his  atoning 
sacrifice,  appeared  to  be  the  topics  on  which  he  loved  chiefly  to  dwell. 
The  all-pervading  deadly  evils  of  slavery,  and  the  atrocities  of  the  slave- 
trade,  never  failed  to  excite  his  righteous  indignation.  If  ever  he  was 
betrayed  into  unmeasured  language,  it  was  when  referring  to  these 
topics,  or  when  speaking  of  the  injurious  influence  exerted  on  the  native 
mind  by  the  cruel  and  unprincipled  conduct  of  wicked  and  selfish  traders. 
His  love  for  Africa,  and  confidence  in  the  steady  dawn  of  brighter  days 
for  its  oppressed  races,  were  unbounded." 

From  a  member  of  another  family,  that  of  Mr.  Frederick 
Fitch,  of  Highbury  New  Park,  with  whom  also  the  Living- 
stones spent  part  of  their  time,  we  have  some  homely  but 
graphic  reminiscences: 

"Dr.  Livingstone  was  very  simple  and  unpretending,  and  used  to  be 
annoyed  when  he  was  made  a  lion  of.  Once  a  well-known  gentleman, 
who  was  advertised  to  deliver  a  lecture  next  day,  called  on  him  to  pump 
him  for  material.  The  Doctor  sat  rather  quiet,  and,  without  being  rude, 
treated  the  gentleman  to  monosyllabic  answers.  He  could  do  that — 
could  keep  people  at  a  distance  when  they  wanted  to  make  capital  out 
of  him.  When  the  stranger  had  left,  turning  to  my  mother,  he  would 
say,  'I'll  tell  you  anything  you  like  to  ask.' 

"He  never  liked  to  walk  in  the  streets  for  fear  of  being  mobbed. 
Once  he  was  mobbed  in  Eegent  street,  and  did  not  know  how  he  was 
to  escape,  till  he  saw  a  cab,  and  took  refuge  in  it.  For  the  same  reason 
it  was  painful  for  him  to  go  to  church.     Once,  being  anxious  to  go  with 

20 


230  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

us,  my  father  persuaded  him  that,  as  the  seat  at  the  top  of  our  pew  was 
under  the  gallery,  he  would  not  be  seen.  As  soon  as  he  entered,  he  held 
down  his  head,  and  kept  it  covered  with  his  hands  all  the  time,  but  the 
preacher  somehow  caught  sight  of  him,  and  rather  unwisely,  in  his  last 
prayer,  adverted  to  him.  This  gave  the  people  the  knowledge  that  he 
was  in  the  chapel,  and  after  the  service  they  came  trooping  toward  him, 
even  over  the  pews,  in  their  anxiety  to  see  him  and  shake  hands.^ 

''  Dr.  Livingstone  usually  conducted  our  family  worship.  On  Sunday 
morning  he  always  gave  us  a  text  for  the  day.  His  prayers  were  very 
direct  and  simple,  just  like  a  child  asking  his  Father  for  what  he 
needed. 

"  He  was  always  careful  as  to  dress  and  appearance.  This  was  his 
habit  in  Africa,  too,  and  with  Mrs.  Livingstone  it  was  the  same.  They 
thought  that  this  was  fitted  to  secure  respect  for  themselves,  and  that  it 
was  for  the  good  of  the  natives  too,  as  it  was  so  difficult  to  imoress  them 
with  proper  ideas  on  the  subject  of  dress. 

*'Dr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone  were  much  attached,  and  tnoroughly 
understood  each  o.ther.  The  doctor  was  sportive  and  fond  of  a  joke, 
and  Mrs.  Livingstone  entered  into  his  humor.  Mrs.  Livingstone  was 
terribly  anxious  about  her  husband  when  he  was  in  Africa,  but  before 
others  she  concealed  her  emotion.  In  society  both  were  reserved  and 
quiet.  Neither  of  them  cared  for  grandeur;  it  was  a  great  trial  to  Dr. 
Livingstone  to  go  to  a  grand  dinner.  Yet  in  his  quiet  way  he  wouli 
exercise  an  influence  at  the  dinner-table.     He  told  us  that  once  at  a 

dinner  at  Lord 's,  every  one  was  running  down  London  tradesmen. 

Dr.  Livingstone  quietly  remarked  that  though  he  was  a  stranger  in  Lon- 
don, he  knew  one  tradesman  of  whose  honesty  he  was  thoroughly 
assured;  and  if  there  was  one  such  in  his  little  circle,  surely  there  must 
be  many  more. 

"  He  used  to  rise  early :  about  seven  he  had  a  cup  of  tea  or  coffee, 
and  then  he  set  to  work  with  hia  writing.  He  had  not  the  appearance 
of  a  very  strong  man." 

In  spite  of  his  literary  work,  the  stream  of  public 
honors  and  public  engagements  began  to  flow  very 
strongly.  The  Prince  Consort  granted  him  an  interview, 
soon  after  his  arrival,  in  presence  of  some  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  Royal  Family.  In  March  it  was  agreed  to 
present  him  with  the  freedom  of  the  City  of  London,  in  a 
box  of  the  value  of  fifty  guineas,  and  in  May  the  presen- 

*  A  similar  occurrence  took  place  in  a  church  at  Bath  during  the  meetings  of 
the  British  Association  in  1864' 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  231 

tation  took  place.     Most  of  his  public  honors,  however, 

were  reserved  till  the  autumn. 

The  Missionary  Travels  was  published  in  November,  1857, 
and  the  success  of  the  book  was  quite  remarkable.  Writing 
to  Mr.  Maclear,  10th  November,  1857,  he  says,  after  an 
apology  for  delay: 

"You  must  ascribe  my  culpable  silence  to  *  aberration.'  I  am  out  of 
my  orbit,  rather,  and  you  must  have  patience  till  I  come  in  again.  The 
book  is  out  to-day,  and  I  am  going  to  Captain  Washington  to  see  about 
copies  to  yourself,  the  Governor,  the  Bishop,  Fairbairn,  Thompson, 
Eutherfoord,  and  Saul  Solomon.*  Ten  thousand  were  taken  by  the 
London  trade  alone.  Thirteen  thousand  eight  hundred  have  been 
ordered  from  an  edition  of  twelve  thousand,  so  the  printers  are  again 
at  work  to  supply  the  demand.  Sir  Roderick  gave  it  a  glowing  character 
last  night  at  the  Eoyal  Greographical  Society,  and  the  Athenceum  has 
come  out  strongly  on  the  same  side.  This  is  considered  a  successful 
launch  for  a  guinea  book." 

It  has  sometimes  been  a  complaint  that  so  inuch  of  the 
book  is  occupied  with  matters  of  science,  geographical 
inquiries,  descriptions  of  plants  and  animals,  accounts  of 
rivers  and  mountains,  and  so  little  with  what  directly  con- 
cerns the  work  of  the  missionary.  In  reply  to  this,  it  may 
be  stated,  in  the  first  place,  that  if  the  information  given 
and  the  views  expressed  on  missionary  topics  were  all  put 
together,  they  would  constitute  no  insignificant  contribution 
to  missionary  literature.  But  there  was  another  con- 
sideration. Livingstone  regarded  himself  as  but  a  pioneer 
in  missionary  enterprise.  During  sixteen  years  he  had 
done  much  to  bring  the  knowledge  of  Christ  to  tribes  that 
had  never  heard  of  Him — probably  no  missionary  in  Africa 
had  ever  preached  to  so  many  blacks.  In  some  instances 
he  had  been  successful  in  the  highest  sense — he  had  been 
the  instrument  of  turning  men  from  darkness  to  light;  but 
he  did  not  think  it  right  to  dwell  on  these  cases,  because 

*  JLiriff^one  was  quite  lavish  with  presentation  copies ;  every  friend  cm 
t|y^  seemed  to  be  included  in  his  list.  He  tried  to  remember  every  one  who 
lad  showa  kindness  to  himself  and  particuiariy  to  lus  wife  and  childron. 


232  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

the  converts  were  often  inconsistent,  and  did  not  exemplify 
a  high  moral  tone.  In  most  cases,  however,  he  had  been 
a  sower  of  seed,  and  not  a  reaper  of  harvests.  He  had  no 
triumphs  to  record,  like  those  which  had  gladdened  the 
hearts  of  some  of  his  missionary  brethren  in  the  South 
Sea  Islands.  He  wished  his  book  to  be  a  record  of  facts, 
not  a  mere  register  of  hopes.  The  missionary  work  was 
yet  to  be  done.  It  belonged  to  the  future,  not  to  the  past. 
By  showing  what  vast  fields  there  were  in  Africa  ripe  for 
the  harvest,  he  sought  to  stimulate  the  Christian  enterprise 
of  the  Churches,  and  lead  them  to  take  possession  of  Africa 
for  Christ.  He  would  diligently  record  facts  which  he  had 
ascertained  about  Africa,  facts  that  he  saw  had  some  bearing 
on  its  future  welfare,  but  whose  full  significance  in  that  con- 
nection  no  one  might  yet  be  able  to  perceive.  In  a  sense, 
the  book  was  a  work  of  faith.  He  wished  to  interest 
men  of  science,  men  of  commerce,  men  of  philanthropy, 
ministers  of  the  Crown,  men  of  all  sorts,  in  the  welfare  of 
Africa.  Where  he  had  so  varied  a  constituency  to  deal 
with,  and  where  the  precise  method  by  which  Africa  would 
be  civilized  was  yet  so  indefinite,  he  would  faithfully  record 
what  he  had  come  to  know,  and  let  others  build  as  they 
might  with  his  materials.  Certainly,  in  all  that  Living- 
stone has  written,  he  has  left  us  in  no  doubt  as  to  the  con- 
summation to  which  he  ever  looked.  His  whole  writings 
and  his  whole  life  are  a  commentary  on  his  own  words — ■ 
*The  end  of  the  geographical  feat  is  only  the  beginning  of 
the  enterprise." 

Through  the  great  success  of  the  volume  and  the  hand- 
some conduct  of  the  publishers,  the  book  yielded  him  a 
little  fortune.  We  shall  see  what  generous  use  he  made 
of  it — how  large  a  portion  of  the  profits  went  to  forward 
directly  the  great  object  to  which  his  heart  and  his  life 
were  so  cordially  given.  More  than  half  went  to  a  single 
object  connected  with  the  Zambesi  Expedition,  and  of  the 
remainder  he  was  ready  to  devote  a  half  to  another  favorite 
project.     All  that  he  thoueht  it  his  duty  to  reserve  for  his 


FIRSl    VISIT  HOMK  23S 

cliildren  was  enough  to  educate  them,  and  prepare  them 
for  their  part  in  life.  Nothing  would  have  seemed  less 
desirable  or  less  for  their  good  than  to  found  a  rich  family 
to  live  in  idleness.  It  was  and  is  a  common  impression  that 
Livingstone  received  large  sums  from  friends  to  aid  him 
in  his  work.  For  the  most  part  these  impressions  were 
unfounded ;  but  his  own  hard-earned  money  was  bestowed 
freely  and  cheerfully  wherever  it  seemed  likely  to  do  good. 
The  complaint  that  he  was  not  sufficiently  a  missionary 
was  sometimes  made  of  his  speeches  as  well  as  his  book. 
At  Carlisle,  a  lady  wrote  to  him  in  this  strain.  A  copy  of 
his  reply  is  before  us.  After  explaining  that  reporters 
were  more  ready  to  report  his  geography  than  his  mission- 
ary views,  he  says : 

''Nowhere  have  I  ever  appeared  as  anything  else  but  a  servant  of 
God,  who  has  simply  followed  the  leadings  of  his  hand.  My  views  of 
what  is  missionary  duty  are  not  so  contracted  as  those  whose  ideal  is  a 
dumpy  sort  of  man  with  a  Bible  under  his  arm.  I  have  labored  in 
bricks  and  mortar,  at  the  forge  and  carpenter's  bench,  as  well  as  in 
preaching  and  medical  practice.  I  feel  that  I  am  *  not  my  own.'  I  am 
serving  Christ  when  shooting  a  buffalo  for  my  men,  or  taking  an  astro* 
nomical  observation,  or  writing  to  one  of  his  children  who  forget, 
during  the  little  moment  of  penning  a  note,  that  charity  which  is 
eulogized  as  '  thinking  no  evil'  j  and  after  having  by  his  help  got 
information,  which  I  hope  will  lead  to  more  abundant  blessing  being 
bestowed  on  Africa  than  heretofore,  am  I  to  hide  the  light  under  a 
bushel,  merely  because  some  will  consider  it  not  sufficiently,  or  even  at 
all,  missionary  ?  Knowmg  that  some  persons  do  believe  that  opening 
up  a  new  country  to  the  sympathies  of  Christendom  was  not  a  proper 
work  for  an  agent  of  a  missionary  society  to  engage  in,  I  now  refrain 
from  taking  any  salary  from  the  Society  with  which  I  was  connected; 
PC  no  pecuniary  loss  is  sustained  by  any  one." 

Subsequently,  when  detained  in  Manyuema,  and  when 
his  immediate  object  was  to  determine  the  water-shed,  Dr. 
Livingstone  wrote :  "  I  never  felt  a  single  pang  at  having 
left  the  Missionary  Society.  I  acted  for  my  Master,  and 
believe  that  all  ought  to  devote  their  special  faculties  to 
Him.  I  regretted  that  unconscientious  men  took  occasion 
^  prevent  many  from  &vmpathizing  with  me." 


i34  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

FIRST  VISIT  HOME — Continued, 
A.D.  1857-1858. 

Livingstone  at  Dublin,  at  British  Association — Letter  to  his  wife — He  meets 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  at  Manchester — At  Glasgow,  receives  honors 
from  Corporation,  University,  Faculty  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  United 
Presbyterians,  Cotton-spinners — His  speeches  in  reply — His  brother  Charles 
joins  him — Interesting  meeting  and  speech  at  Hamilton — Reception  from 
**  Literary  and  Scientific  Institute  of  Blantyre" — Sympathy  with  operatives 
— Quick  apprehension  of  all  public  questions — His  social  views  in  advance 
of  the  age — He  plans  a  People's  Cafe — Visit  to  Edinburgh — More  honors — 
Letter  to  Mr.  Maclear — Interesting  visit  to  Cambridge — Lectures  there- 
Professor  Sedgwick's  remarks  on  his  visit — Livingstone's  great  satisfaction- 
Relations  to  London  Missionary  Society — He  severs  his  connection — Pro- 
posal of  Government  expedition — He  accepts  consulship  and  command  of 
expedition — Kindness  of  Lords  Palmerston  and  Clarendon — The  Portuguese 
Ambassador — Livingstone  proposes  to  go  to  Portugal — Is  dissuaded — Lord 
Clarendon's  letter  to  Sekeletu — Results  of  Livingstone's  visit  to  England — 
Farewell  banquet,  Feb.,  1858 — Interview  with  the  Queen — Valedictory  letters 
— Professor  Sedgwick  and  Sir  Roderick  Murchison — Arrangements  for  ex- 
pedition— Dr.,  Mrs.,  and  Oswell  Livingstone  set  sail  from  Liverpool — Letters 
to  children. 

Finding  himself,  in  the  autumn,  free  of  the  toil  of  book- 
making.  Dr.  Livingstone  moved  more  freely  through  the 
country,  attended  meetings,  and  gave  addresses.  In  August 
he  went  to  Dublin,  to  the  meeting  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  and  gave  an  inter- 
esting lecture.  Mrs.  Livingstone  did  not  accompany  him. 
In  a  letter  to  her  we  have  some  pleasant  notes  of  his 
Dublin  visit : 

*' Dublin,  29ih  Augttst,  1857. — I  am  very  sorry  now  that  I  did  not 
bring  you  with  me,  for  all  inquired  after  you,  and  father's  book  is  better 
known  her>»  tnan  anywhere  else  I  have  been.     But  it  could  scaroely 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  235 

have  been  otherwise.  I  think  the  visit  to  Dublin  will  be  beneficial  to 
our  cause,  which,  I  think,  is  the  cause  of  Christ  in  Africa.  Lord 
Radstock  is  much  interested  in  it,  and  seems  willing  and  anxious  to 
promote  it.  He  was  converted  out  at  the  Crimea,  whither  he  had  gone 
as  an  amateur.  His  lady  is  a  beautiful  woman,  and  I  think,  what  is 
far  better,  a  good,  pious  one.  The  Archbishop's  daughters  asked  me 
if  they  could  be  of  any  use  in  sending  out  needles,  thread,  etc.,  to  your 
school.  I,  of  course,  said  Yes.  His  daughters  are  devotedly  missionary, 
and  work  hard  in  ragged  schools,  etc.  One  of  them  nearly  remained 
in  Jerusalem  as  a  missionary,  and  is  the  same  in  spirit  here.  It  is  well 
to  be  servants  of  Christ  everywhere,  at  home  or  abroad,  wherever  He 
may  send  us  or  take  us.  ...  I  hope  I  may  be  enabled  to  say  a 
word  for  Him  on  Monday.  There  is  to  be  a  grand  dinner  and  soiree  at 
the  Lord-Lieutenant's  on  Monday,  and  I  have  got  an  invitation  in  my 
pocket,  but  will  have  to  meet  Admiral  Trotter  on  Tuesday.  I  go  off  as 
Boon  as  my  lecture  is  over.  .  ,  .  Sir  Duncan  Macgregor  is  the 
author  of  The  Burning  of  the  Kent  East  Indiaman.  His  son,  the  only 
infant  saved,  is  now  a  devoted  Christian,  a  barrister."  ^ 

In  September  we  find  him  in  Manchester,  where  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  gave  him  a  hearty  welcome,  and 
entered  cordially  into  his  schemes  for  the  commercial 
development  of  Africa.  He  was  subjected  to  a  close  cross- 
examination  regarding  the  products  of  the  country,  and 
the  materials  it  contained  for  commerce;  but  here,  too, 
the  missionary  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  He  had  brought 
home  five  or  six  and  twenty  difierent  kinds  of  fruit ;  he 
told  them  of  oils  they  had  never  heard  of — dyes  that  were 
kept  secret  by  the  natives — fibres  that  might  be  used  for 
the  manufacture  of  paper — sheep  that  had  hair  instead 
of  wool — honey,   sugar-cane,  wheat,   millet,   cotton,  and 

*  Dr.  Livingstone  always  liked  that  style  of  earnest  Christianity  which  he 
notices  in  this  letter.  In  November  of  the  same  year,  after  he  had  resigned  his 
connection  with  the  London  Missionary  Society,  and  was  preparing  to  return  to 
Africa  as  H.M.  Consul  and  head  of  the  Zambesi  Expedition,  he  writes  thus  to 
his  friend  Mr.  James  Young :  "  I  read  the  life  of  Hedley  Vicars  for  the  first 
time  through,  when  down  at  Rugby,  It  is  really  excellent,  and  makes  me 
sishamed  of  the  coldness  of  my  services  in  comparison.  That  was  his  sister 
you  saw  me  walking  with  in  Dublin  at  the  Gardens  (Lady  Rayleigh).  If  you 
have  not  read  it,  the  sooner  you  dip  into  it  the  better.  You  will  thank  me 
lor  it" 


236  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

iron,  all  abounding  in  the  country.  That  all  these  should 
abound  in  what  used  to  be  deemed  a  sandy  desert  appeared 
very  strange.  A  very  cordial  resolution  was  unanimously 
agreed  to,  and  a  strong  desire  expressed  that  Her  Majesty's 
Government  would  unite  with  that  of  Portugal  in  giving 
Dr.  Livingstone  facilities  for  further  exploration  in  the 
interior  of  Africa,  and  especially  in  the  district  around  the 
river  Zambesi  and  its  tributaries,  which  promised  to  be 
the  most  suitable  as  a  basis  both  for  commercial  and 
missionary  settlements. 

In  the  course  of  the  same  month  his  foot  was  again  on 
his  native  soil,  and  there  his  reception  was  remarkably 
cordial.  In  Glasgow,  the  University,  the  Corporation,  the 
Faculty  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  the  United  Presby- 
terians, and  the  Associated  Operative  Cotton-spinners  of 
Scotland  came  forward  to  pay  him  honor.  A  testimonial 
of  £2000  had  been  raised  by  public  subscription.  The 
Corporation  presented  him  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  in 
a  gold  box,  in  acknowledging  which  he  naturally  dwelt 
on  some  of  the  topics  that  were  interesting  to  a  commer- 
cial community.  He  gave  a  somewhat  new  view  of  "  Pro- 
tection" when  he  called  it  a  remnant  of  heathenism.  The 
heathen  would  be  dependent  on  no  one;  they  would 
depress  all  other  communities.  Christianity  taught  us  to 
be  friends  and  brothers,  and  he  was  glad  that  all  restric- 
tions on  the  freedom  of  trade  were  now  done  away  with. 
He  dwelt  largely  on  the  capacity  of  Africa  to  furnish  us 
with  useful  articles  of  trade,  and  especially  cotton. 

His  reception  by  the  Faculty  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons had  a  special  interest  in  relation  to  his  medical 
labors.  For  nearly  twenty  years  he  had  been  a  licentiate 
of  this  Faculty,  one  of  the  oldest  medical  institutions  of 
the  country,  which  for  two  centuries  and  a  half  had 
exerted  a  great  influence  in  the  west  of  Scotland.  He 
was  now  admitted  an  honorary  Fellow — an  honor  rarely 
conferred,  and  only  on  pre-eminently  distinguished  men 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  237 

The  President  referred  to  the  benefit  which  he  had  found 
from  his  scientific  as  well  as  his  more  strictly  medical 
studies,  pursued  under  their  auspices,  and  Livingstone 
cordially  echoed  the  remark,  saying  he  often  hoped  that 
his  sons  might  follow  the  same  course  of  study  and  devote 
themselves  to  the  same  noble  profession : 

"In  the  country  to  which  I  went,"  he  continued,  "I  endeavored  to 
follow  the  footsteps  of  my  Lord  and  Master.  Our  Saviour  was  a  physi* 
cian  ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  his  followers  should  perform 
miracles.  The  nearest  approach  which  they  could  expect  to  make  was 
to  become  acquainted  with  medical  science,  and  endeavor  to  heal  the 
diseases  of  man.  .  .  .  One  patient  expressed  his  opinion  of  my 
religion  to  the  following  effect :  "  We  like  you  very  much  ;  you  are  the 
only  white  man  we  have  got  acquainted  with.  We  like  you  because 
you  aid  us  whilst  we  are  sick,  but  we  don't  like  your  everlasting  preach- 
ing and  praying.     We  can't  get  accustomed  to  that  I" 

To  the  United  Presbyterians  of  Glasgow  he  spoke  of 
mission  work  in  Africa.  At  one  time  he  had  been  some- 
what disappointed  with  the  Bechuana  Christians,  and 
thought  the  results  of  the  mission  had  been  exaggerated, 
but  when  he  went  into  the  interior  and  saw  heathenism  in 
all  its  unmitigated  ferocity,  he  changed  his  opinion,  and 
had  a  higher  opinion  than  ever  of  what  the  mission  had 
done.  Such  gatherings  as  the  present  were  very  encour- 
aging ;  but  in  Africa  mission  work  was  hard  work  without 
excitement ;  and  they  had  just  to  resolve  to  do  their  duty 
without  expecting  to  receive  gratitude  from  those  whom 
they  labored  to  serve.  When  gratitude  came,  they  were 
thankful  to  have  it ;  but  when  it  did  not  come  they  must 
go  on  doing  their  duty,  as  unto  the  Lord. 

His  reply  to  the  cotton-spinners  is  interesting  as  showing 
how  fresh  his  sympathy  still  was  with  the  sons  of  toil,  and 
what  respect  he  had  for  their  position.  He  congratulated 
himself  on  the  Spartan  training  he  had  got  at  the  Blantyre 
mill,  which  had  really  been  the  foundation  of  all  the  work 
he  had  done.     Poverty  and  hard  work  were  often  looked 


238  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

down  on, — lie  did  not  know  why, — for  wickedness  was  the 
only  thing  that  ought  to  be  a  reproach  to  any  man.  Those 
that  looked  down  on  cotton-spinners  with  contempt  were 
men  who,  had  they  been  cotton-spinners  at  the  beginning, 
would  have  been  cotton-spinners  to  the  end.  The  life  of 
toil  was  what  belonged  to  the  great  majority  of  the  race, 
and  to  be  poor  was  no  reproach.  The  Saviour  occupied  the 
humble  position  that  they  had  been  born  in,  and  he  looked 
back  on  his  own  past  life  as  having  been  spent  in  the  same 
position  in  which  the  Saviour  lived. 

"My  great  object,"  he  said,  "  was  to  be  like  Him — ^to  imitate  Him  as 
far  as  He  could  be  imitated.  "We  have  not  the  power  of  working  miracles, 
but  we  can  do  a  little  in  the  way  of  healing  the  sick,  and  I  sought  a 
medical  education  in  order  that  I  might  be  like  Him.  In  Africa  I  have 
had  hard  work.  I  don't  know  that  any  one  in  Africa  despises  a  man 
who  works  hard.  I  find  that  all  eminent  men  work  hard.  Eminent 
geologists,  mineralogists,  men  of  science  in  every  department,  if  they 
attain  eminence,  work  hard,  and  that  both  early  and  late.  That  is  just 
what  we  did.  Some  of  us  have  left  the  cotton-spinning,  but  I  think  that 
all  of  us  who  have  been  engaged  in  that  occupation  loo\  back  on  it  witk 
feelings  of  complacency,  and  feel  an  interest  in  the  course  of  our  com- 
panions. There  is  one  thing  in  cotton-spinning  that  I  always  felt  to  be 
a  privilege.  "We  were  confined  through  the  whole  day,  but  when  we  got 
out  to  the  green  fields,  and  could  wander  through  the  shady  woods,  and 
rove  about  the  whole  country,  we  enjoyed  it  immensely.  "We  were 
delighted  to  see  the  flowers  and  the  beautiful  scenery.  "We  were  pre- 
pared to  admire.  "We  were  taught  by  our  confinement  to  rejoice  in  the 
beauties  of  nature,  and  when  we  got  out  we  enjoyed  ourselves  to  the 
fullest  extent." 

At  Hamilton  an  interesting  meeting  took  place  in  the 
Congregational  Chapel  where  he  had  been  a  worshiper  in  his 
youth.  Here  he  was  emphatically  at  home;  and  he  took 
the  opportunity  (as  he  often  did)  to  say  how  little  he  liked 
the  lionizing  he  was  undergoing,  and  how  unexpected  all 
the  honors  were  that  had  been  showered  upon  him.  He 
had  hoped  to  spend  a  short  and  quiet  visit,  and  then  return 
to  his  African  work.  It  was  his  sense  of  the  kindness  shown 
him,  and  the  desire  not  to  be  disobliging,  that  made  him 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  289 

accept  the  public  invitations  he  was  receiving.  But  he 
did  not  wish  to  take  the  honor  to  himself,  as  if  he  had 
"achieved  anything  by  his  own  might  or  wisdom.  He 
thanked  God  sincerely  for  employing  him  as  an  instrument 
in  his  work.  One  of  the  greatest  honors  was  to  be 
employed  in  winning  souls  to  Christ,  and  proclaiming  to 
the  captives  of  Satan  the  liberty  with  which  he  had  come 
to  make  them  free.  He  was  thankful  that  to  him,  "the 
least  of  all  saints,"  this  honor  had  been  given.  He  then 
proceeded  to  notice  the  presence  of  members  of  various 
Churches,  and  to  advert  to  the  broadening  process  that 
had  been  going  on  in  his  own  mind  while  in  Africa, 
which  made  him  feel  himself  more  than  ever  the  brother 
of  all: 

"  In  going  about  we  learn  something,  and  it  would  be  a  shame  to  us 
ff  we  did  not  J  and  we  look  back  to  our  own  country  and  view  it  as  a 
whole,  and  many  of  the  little  feelings  we  had  when  immersed  in  our 
own  denominations  we  lose,  and  we  look  to  the  whole  body  of  Christians 
with  affection.  We  rejoice  to  see  them  advancing.  I  believe  that  every 
Scotch  Christian  abroad  rejoiced  in  his  heart  when  he  saw  the  Free 
Church  come  boldly  out  on  principle,  and  I  may  say  we  shall  rejoice 
very  much  when  we  see  the  Free  Church  and  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  one,  as  they  ought  to  be.     .  ,     I  am  sure  I  look  on  all  the 

different  denominations  in  Hamilton  and  in  Britain  with  feelings  of 
affection.  I  cannot  say  which  I  love  most.  I  am  quite  certain  I  ought 
not  to  dislike  any  of  them.  Eeally,  perhaps  I  may  be  considered  a  little 
heterodox,  if  I  were  living  in  this  part  of  the  country,  I  could  not  pass 
one  Evangelical  Church  in  order  to  go  to  my  own  denomination  beyond 
it.^  I  still  think  that  the  different  denominational  peculiarities  have,  to 
a  certain  degree,  a  good  effect  in  this  country,  but  I  think  we  ought  to 
be  much  more  careful  lest  we  should  appear  to  our  fellow-Christians 
unchristian,  than  to  appear  inconsistent  with  the  denominational  prin- 
ciples we  profess.     .     .     .     Let  this  meeting  be  the  ratification  of  the 


^  Dr.  Livingstone  gave  practical  evidence  of  his  sincerity  in  these  remarks  in 
the  case  of  his  elder  daughter,  saying,  in  reply  to  one  of  her  guardians  with 
whom  she  was  residing,  that  he  had  no  objections  to  her  joining  the  Church 
of  Scotland.  This,  however,  she  did  not  do;  but  afterward,  when  at  Newstead 
Abbey,  she  was  confirmed  by  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  received  the  Com- 
munion along  with  her  father,  who  helped  to  prepure  her. 


240  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

bond  of  union  between  my  brother'  and  me,  and  all  the  denominations  of 
Hamilton.  Kemember  us  in  your  prayers.  Bear  us  on  your  spirits  when 
we  are  far  away,  for  when  abroad  we  often  feel  as  if  we  were  forgot  by 
every  one.  My  entreaty  to  all  the  Christians  of  Hamilton  is  to  pray 
that  grace  may  be  given  to  us  to  be  faithful  to  our  Saviour  even  unto 
death." 

At  Blantyre,  his  native  village,  the  Literary  and  Scientific 
Institute  gave  him  a  reception,  Mr.  Harm  an,  one  of  the 
proprietors  of  the  works,  a  magistrate  of  Glasgow,  and  an 
old  acquaintance  of  Livingstone's,  being  in  the  chair.  The 
Doctor  was  laboring  under  a  cold,  the  first  he  had  had  for 
sixteen  years.  He  talked  to  them  of  his  travels,  and  by 
particular  request  gave  an  account  of  his  encounter  with 
the  Mabotsa  lion.  He  ridiculed  Mrs.  Beecher  Stowe's  notion 
that  factory-workers  were  slaves.  He  counseled  them 
strongly  to  put  more  confidence  than  workmen  generally 
did  in  the  honest  good  intentions  of  their  employers, 
reminding  them  that  some  time  ago,  when  the  Blantyre 
proprietors  had  wished  to  let  every  workman  have  a  garden, 
it  was  said  by  some  that  they  only  wished  to  bring  the 
ground  into  good  order,  and  then  they  would  take  the  gar- 
den away.  That  was  nasty  and  suspicious.  If  masters 
were  more  trusted,  they  would  do  more  good.  Finally,  he 
exhorted  them  cordially  to  accept  God's  offers  of  mercy  to 
them  in  Christ,  and  give  themselves  wholly  to  Him.  To 
bow  down  before  God  was  not  mean ;  it  was  manly.  His 
one  wish  for  them  all  was  that  they  might  have  peace  with 
God,  and  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  eternal  inheritance. 

His  remarks  to  the  operatives  show  how  sound  and 
sagacious  his  views  were  on  social  problems ;  in  this  sphere, 
indeed,  he  was  in  advance  of  the  age.  The  quickness  and 
correctness  with  which  he  took  up  matters  of  public  interest 
in  Britain,  mastered  facts,  and  came  to  clear,  intelligent 
conclusions  on  them,  was  often  the  astonishment  of  his 

'  Dr.  Livingstone  had  been  joined  by  his  brother  Charles,  who  was  present 
on  this  occasion. 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  241 

friends.  It  was  as  if,  instead  of  being  buried  in  Africa,  he 
had  been  attending  the  club  and  reading  the  daily  news- 
papers for  years, — this,  too,  while  he  was  at  work  writing 
.'lis  book,  and  delivering  speeches  almost  without  end.  We 
find  him  at  this  time  anticipating  the  temperance  coffee- 
house movement,  now  so  popular  and  successful.  On  11th 
July,  1857,  he  wrote  on  this  subject  to  a  friend,  in  reference 
to  a  proposal  to  deliver  a  lecture  in  Glasgow.  It  should  be 
noticed  that  he  never  lectured  for  money,  though  he  might 
have  done  so  with  great  pecuniary  benefit : 

"  I  am  thinking  of  giving,  or  trying  to  give,  a  lecture  by  invitation  at 
the  Athenasum.  I  am  offered  thirty  guineas,  and  as  my  old  friends  the 
cotton-spinners  have  invited  me  to  meet  them,  I  think  of  handing  the 
Bum,  whatever  it  may  be,  to  them,  or  rather  letting  them  take  it  and  fit 
up  a  room  as  a  coffee-room  on  the  plan  of  the  French  caf^s,  where  men, 
women,  and  children  may  go,  instead  of  to  whisky-shops.  There  are 
coffee-houses  already,  but  I  don't  think  there  are  any  where  they  can 
laugh  and  talk  and  read  papers  just  as  they  please.  The  sort  I  contem- 
plate would  suit  poor  young  fellows  who  cannot  have  a  comfortable  fire 
at  home.  I  have  seen  men  dragged  into  drinking  ways  from  having  no 
comfort  at  home,  and  women  also  drawn  to  the  dram-shop  from  the  same 
cause.  Don't  you  think  something  could  be  done  by  setting  the  persons 
I  mention  to  do  something  for  themselves?" 

Edinburgh  conferred  on  Livingstone  the  freedom  of  the 
city,  besides  entertaining  him  at  a  public  breakfast  and 
hearing  him  at  another  meeting.  We  are  not  surprised  to 
find  him  writing  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  from  Rossie 
Priory,  on  the  27th  September,  that  he  was  about  to  proceed 
to  Leeds,  Liverpool,  and  Birmingham,  "and  then  farewell 
to  public  spouting  for  ever.  I  am  dead  tired  of  it.  The 
third  meeting  at  Edinburgh  quite  knocked  me  up."  It  was 
generally  believed  that  his  appearances  at  Edinburgh  were 
not  equal  to  some  others ;  and  probably  there  was  truth  in 
the  impression,  for  he  must  have  come  to  it  exhausted ; 
and  besides,  at  a  public  breakfast,  he  was  put  out  by  a  pro- 
posal of  the  chairman,  that  they  should  try  to  get  him  a 
pension.  Yet  some  who  heard  him  in  Edinburgh  received 
21 


242  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

impressions  that  were  never  effaced,  and  it  is  probable  that 
seed  was  silently  sown  which  led  afterward  to  the  Scotch 
Livingstonia  Mission — one  of  the  most  hopeful  schemes 
for  carrying  out  Livingstone^s  plans  that  have  yet  been 
organized. 

Among  the  other  honors  conferred  on  him  during  this 
visit  to  Britain  was  the  degree  of  D.C.L.  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford.  Some  time  before,  Glasgow  had  given  him 
the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  In  the  beginning  of  1858, 
when  he  was  proposed  as  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  the 
certificate  on  his  behalf  was  signed,  among  others,  by  the 
Earl  of  Carlisle,  then  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  who  after 
his  signature  added  P.R.  {pro  Eegina),  a  thing  that  had 
never  been  done  before.* 

The  life  he  was  now  leading  was  rather  trying.  He  writes 
to  his  friend  Mr.  Maclear  on  the  10th  November : 

"  I  finish  my  public  spouting  next  week  at  Oxford.  It  is  really  very 
time-killing,  this  lionizing,  and  I  am  sure  you  pity  me  in  it.  I  hope  to 
leave  in  January.  Wonder  if  the  Portuguese  have  fulfilled  the  intention 
of  their  Government  in  supporting  my  men.  ...  I  shall  rejoice 
when  I  see  you  again  in  the  quiet  of  the  Observatory.  It  is  more  satis- 
factory to  serve  God  in  peace.  May  He  give  his  grace  and  blessing  to 
us  all  1  I  am  rather  anxious  to  say  something  that  will  benefit  the  young 
men  at  Oxford.  They  made  me  a  D.C.L.  There  1 1  Wonder  if  they 
would  do  so  to  the  Editor  of  the  Grahamstown  Journal  f" 

Livingstone  was  not  yet  done  with  "public  spouting,** 
even  after  his  trip  to  Oxford.  Among  the  visits  paid  by 
him  toward  the  end  of  1857,  none  was  more  interesting  or 
led  to  more  important  results  than  that  to  Cambridge.  It 
was  on  3d  December  he  arrived  there,  becoming  the  guest 
of  the  Rev.  Wm.  Monk,  of  St.  John's.  Next  morning,  in 
the  senate-house,  he  addressed  a  very  large  audience,  con- 
sisting of  graduates  and  undergraduates  and  many  visitors 
from  the  town  and  neighborhood.    The  Vice-Chancellor 

presided  and  introduced  the  stranger.     Dr.  Livingstone's 

■»       * 

>  For  list  of  Dr.  Livingstone's  honors,  see  App«ndix  No.  V. 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  243 

lecture  consisted  of  facts  relating  to  the  country  and  its 
people,  their  habits  and  religious  belief,  with  some  notices 
of  his  travels,  and  an  emphatic  statement  of  his  great 
object — to  promote  commerce  and  Christianity  in  the 
country  which  he  had  opened.  The  last  part  of  his  lecture 
was  an  earnest  appeal  for  missionaries. 

"  It  is  deplorable  to  think  tliat  one  of  the  noblest  of  our  missionary 
societies,  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  is  compelled  to  send  to  Ger- 
many for  missionaries,  whilst  other  Societies  are  amply  supplied.  Let 
this  stain  be  wiped  off.  The  sort  of  men  who  are  wanted  for  missionaries 
are  such  as  I  see  before  me;  men  of  education,  standing,  enterprise, 
zeal,  and  piety.  ...  I  hope  that  many  whom  I  now  address  will 
embrace  that  honorable  career.  Education  has  been  given  us  from  above 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  to  the  benighted  the  knowledge  of  a  Saviour. 
If  you  knew  the  satisfaction  of  performing  such  a  duty,  as  well  as  the 
gratitude  to  Grod  which  the  missionary  must  always  feel,  in  being  chosen 
for  so  noble,  so  sacred  a  calling,  you  would  have  no  hesitation  in 
embracing  it. 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  have  never  ceased  to  rejoice  that  God  has 
appointed  me  to  such  an  of&ce.  People  talk  of  the  sacrifice  I  have  made 
in  spending  so  much  of  my  life  in  Africa.  Can  that  be  called  a  sacrifice 
which  is  simply  paid  back  as  a  small  part  of  a  great  debt  owing  to  our 
God,  which  we  can  never  repay?  Is  that  a  sacrifice  which  brings  ita 
own  blest  reward  in  healthful  activity,  the  consciousness  of  doing  good, 
peace  of  mind,  and  a  bright  hope  of  a  glorious  destiny  hereafter?  Away 
with  the  word  in  such  a  view,  and  with  such  a  thought  1  It  is  emphat- 
ically no  sacrifice.  Say  rather  it  is  a  privilege.  Anxiety,  sickness, 
suffering,  or  danger,  now  and  then,  with  a  foregoing  of  the  common 
conveniences  and  charities  of  this  life,  may  make  us  pause,  and  cause  the 
spirit  to  waver,  and  the  soul  to  sink ;  but  let  this  only  be  for  a  moment. 
All  these  are  nothing  when  compared  with  the  glory  which  shall  here- 
after be  revealed  in  and  for  us.  I  never  made  a  sacrifice.  Of  this  we 
ought  not  to  talk  when  we  remember  the  great  sacrifice  which  He  made 
who  left  his  father's  throne  on  high  to  give  himself  for  us ;  'who  being 
the  brightness  of  that  Father's  glory,  and  the  express  image  of  his  per- 
son, and  upholding  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  when  he  had 
by  himself  purged  our  sins,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty 
on  high.'     .     .     . 

"  I  beg  to  direct  your  attention  to  Africa :  I  know  that  in  a  few  years 
I  shall  be  cut  off  in  that  country,  which  is  now  open ;  do  not  let  it  be 
«hut  again  I     I  go  back  to  Airica  to  t'*~  to  make  an  open  path  for  com* 


244  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

merce  and  Christianity  j  do  you  carry  out  the  work  which  I  have  begun, 

I  LEAVE  IT  WITH  YOU  1  " 

In  a  prefatory  letter  prefixed  to  the  volume  entitled 
Dr.  Livingstone^ s  Cambridge  Lectures,  the  late  Professor 
Sedgwick  remarked,  in  connection  with  this  event,  that 
in  the  course  of  a  long  academic  life  he  had  often  been 
present  in  the  senate-house  on  exciting  occasions ;  in  the 
days  of  Napoleon  he  had  heard  the  greetings  given  to  our 
great  military  heroes;  he  had  been  present  at  four 
installation  services,  the  last  of  which  was  graced  by  the 
presence  of  the  Queen,  when  her  youthful  husband  was 
installed  as  Chancellor,  amid  the  most  fervent  gratulations 
that  subjects  are  permitted  to  exhibit  in  the  presence  of 
their  Sovereign.  But  on  none  of  these  occasions  "  were  the 
gratulations  of  the  University  more  honest  and  true- 
hearted  than  those  which  were  offered  to  Dr.  Livingstone. 
He  came  among  us  without  any  long  notes  of  preparation, 
without  any  pageant  or  eloquence  to  charm  and  captivate 
our  senses.  He  stood  before  us,  a  plain,  single-minded  man, 
somewhat  attenuated  by  years  of  toil,  and  with  a  face  tinged 
by  the  sun  of  Africa.  .  .  .  While  we  listened  to  the 
tale  he  had  to  tell,  there  arose  in  the  hearts  of  all  the 
listeners  a  fervent  hope  that  the  hand  of  God  which  had  so 
long  upheld  him  would  uphold  him  still,  and  help  him  to 
carry  out  the  great  work  of  Christian  love  that  was  still 
before  him." 

Next  day,  December  5th,  Dr.  Livingstone  addressed  a 
very  crowded  audience  in  the  Town  Hall,  the  Mayor  pre- 
siding.    Referring  to  his  own  plans,  he  said : 

"  I  contend  that  we  ought  not  to  be  ashamed  of  our  religion,  and  had 
we  not  kept  this  so  much  out  of  sight  in  India,  we  should  not  now  be  in 
Buch  straits  in  that  country"  [referring  to  the  Indian  Mutiny].  "Let 
us  appear  just  what  we  are.  For  my  own  part,  I  intend  to  go  out  as  a 
missionary,  and  hope  boldly,  but  with  civility,  to  state  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  and  my  belief  that  those  who  do  not  possess  it  are  in  error. 
My  object  in  Africa  is  not  only  the  elevation  of  man,  but  that  the 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  246 

country  might  be  so  opened  that  man  might  eee  the  need  of  his  soul's 
salvation.  I  propose  in  my  next  expedition  to  visit  the  Zambesi,  and 
propitiate  the  different  chiefs  along  its  banks,  endeavoring  to  induce 
them  to  cultivate  cotton,  and  to  abolish  the  slave-trade :  already  they 
trade  in  ivory  and  gold-dust,  and  are  anxious  to  extend  their  commercial 
operations.  There  is  thus  a  probability  of  their  interests  being  linked 
with  ours,  and  thus  the  elevation  of  the  African  would  be  the  result. 

"  I  believe  England  is  alive  to  her  duty  of  civilizing  and  Christianizing 
the  heathen.  We  cannot  all  go  out  as  missionaries,  it  is  true;  but  we 
may  all  do  something  toward  providing  a  substitute.  Moreover,  all  may 
especially  do  that  which  every  missionary  highly  prizes,  viz. — commend 

THE  WORK  IN  THEIR  PRAYERS.  I  HOPE  THAT  THOSE  WHOM  I  NOW  ADDRESS 
WILL  BOTH  PRAY  FOR  AND  HELP  THOSE  WHO  ARE  THEIR  SUBSTITUTES." 


-  Dr.  Livingstone  was  thoroughly  delighted  with  his  recep- 
tion at  Cambridge.  Writing  to  a  friend,  on  6th  December 
1857,  he  says :  "  Cambridge,  as  Playfair  would  say,  was 
grand.  It  beat  Oxford  hollow.  To  make  up  my  library 
again  they  subscribed  at  least  forty  volumes  at  once.  I 
shall  have  reason  soon  to  bless  the  Boers." 

Referring  to  his  Cambridge  visit  a  few  weeks  afterward, 
in  a  letter  to  Rev.  W.  Monk,  Dr.  Livingstone  said :  "  I  look 
back  to  my  visit  to  Cambridge  as  one  of  the  most  pleasant 
episodes  of  my  life.  I  shall  always  revert  with  feelings  of 
delight  to  the  short  intercourse  I  enjoyed  with  such  noble 
Christian  men  as  Sedgwick,  Whewell,  Selwyn,  etc.  etc.,  as 
not  the  least  important  privilege  conferred  on  me  by  my 
visit  to  England.  It  is  something  inspiriting  to  remember 
that  the  eyes  of  such  men  are  upon  one's  course.  May 
blessings  rest  upon  them  all,  and  on  the  seat  of  learning 
which  they  adorn !  " 

Among  the  subjects  that  had  occupied  Dr.  Livingstone's 
attention  most  intensely  during  the  early  part  of  the  year 
1857  was  that  of  his  relation  to  the  London  Missionary 
Society.  The  impression  caused  by  Dr.  Tidman's  letter 
received  at  Quilimane  had  been  quite  removed  by  personal 
intercourse  with  the  Directors,  who  would  have  been 
delighted  to  let  Livingstone  work  in  their  service  in  his 


246  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

own  way.  But  with  the  very  peculiar  work  of  exploration 
and  inquiry  which  he  felt  that  his  Master  had  now  placed 
in  his  hands,  Dr.  Livingstone  was  afraid  that  his  freedom 
would  be  restricted  by  his  continuing  in  the  service  of  the 
Society,  while  the  Society  itself  would  be  liable  to  suffer 
from  the  handle  that  might  be  given  to  contributors  to  say 
that  it  was  departing  from  the  proper  objects  of  a  missionary 
body.  That  in  resigning  his  official  connection  he  acted 
with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  effect  which  this  might  have 
upon  his  own  character,  and  his  reputation  before  the 
Church  and  the  world,  is  evident  from  his  correspondence 
with  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends  and  trusted  coun- 
selors, Mr.  J.  B.  Braithwaite,  of  Lincoln's  Inn.  Though 
himself  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  Mr.  Braith- 
waite was  desirous  that  Dr.  Livingstone  should  continue  to 
appear  before  the  public  as  a  Christian  minister: 

"  To  dissolve  tliy  connection  with  tlie  Missionary  Society  would  at 
once  place  thee  before  the  public  in  an  aspect  wholly  distinct  from  that 
in  which  thou  art  at  present,  and,  what  is  yet  more  important,  would  in 
a  greater  or  less  degree,  and,  perhaps,  very  gradually  and  almost  insen- 
eibly  to  thyself,  turn  the  current  of  thy  own  thoughts  and  feelings  away 
from  those  channels  of  usefulness  and  service,  as  a  minister  of  the 
gospel,  with  which  I  cannot  doubt  thy  deepest  interest  and  highest 
aspirations  are  inseparably  associated." 

On  Dr.  Livingstone  explaining  that,  while  he  fully 
appreciated  these  views,  it  did  not  appear  to  him  consistent 
with  duty  to  be  receiving  the  pay  of  a  working  missionary 
while  engaged  to  a  considerable  extent  in  scientific  explo- 
ration, Mr.  Braithwaite  expressed  anew  his  sympathy  for 
his  feelings,  and  respect  for  his  decision,  but  not  as  one 
quite  convinced: 

"  Thy  heart  is  bound,  as  I  truly  believe,  in  its  inmost  depths  to  the 
service  of  Christ.  This  is  the  'one  thing'  which,  through  all,  it  is  thy 
desire  to  keep  in  view.  And  my  fear  has  been  lest  the  severing  of  thy 
connection  with  a  recognized  religious  body  should  lead  any  to  suppose 
that  thy  Christian  interests  were  in  the  least  weakened ;  or  that  thoo 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  2A1 

wast  now  going  forth  with  any  lower  aim  than  the  advancement  of  the 
Eedeemer's  kingdom.  Such  a  circumstance  would  be  deeply  to  be 
regretted,  for  thy  character  is  now,  if  I  may  so  speak,  not  thy  own,  but 
the  common  property,  in  a  certain  sense,  of  British  Christianity,  and 
anything  which  tended  to  lower  thy  high  standing  would  cast  a  reflection 
on  the  general  cause." 

The  result  showed  that  Mr.  Braithwaite  was  right  as  to 
the  impression  likely  to  be  raade  on  the  public ;  but  the 
contents  of  this  volume  amply  prove  that  the  impression 
was  wrong. 

Dr.  Livingstone  had  said  at  Quilimane  that  if  it  were 
the  will  of  God  that  he  should  do  the  work  of  exploration 
and  settlement  of  stations  which  was  indispensable  to  the 
opening  up  of  Africa,  but  which  the  Directors  did  not  then 
seem  to  wish  him  to  undertake,  the  means  would  be  pro- 
vided from  some  other  quarter.  At  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  in  Dublin,  a  movement  was  begun  for 
getting  the  Government  to  aid  him.  The  proposal  was 
entertained  favorably  by  the  Government,  and  practically 
settled  before  the  end  of  the  year.  In  February,  1858,  Dr. 
Livingstone  received  a  formal  commission,  signed  by  Lord 
Clarendon,  Foreign  Secretary,  appointing  him  Her  Majesty's 
Consul  at  Quilimane  for  the  Eastern  Coast  and  the  inde- 
pendent districts  in  the  interior,  and  commander  of  an 
expedition  for  exploring  Eastern  and  Central  Africa.  Dr. 
Livingstone  accepted  the  appointment,  and  during  the  last 
part  of  his  stay  in  England  was  much  engaged  in  arranging 
for  the  expedition.  A  paddle  steamer  of  light  draught  was 
procured  for  the  navigation  of  the  Zambesi,  and  the  various 
members  of  the  expedition  received  their  appointments. 
These  were — Commander  Bedingfield,  E.N.,  Naval  Officer*, 
John  Kirk,  M.D.,  Botanist  and  Physician;  Mr.  Charles 
Livingstone,  brother  of  Dr.  Livingstone,  General  Assistant 
and  Secretary;  Mr.  Richard  Thornton,  Practical  Mining 
Geologist;  Mr.  Thomas  Baines,  Artist  and  Storekeeper;  and 
Mr.  George  Eae,  Ship  Engineer;  and  whoever  aftervrard 


248  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

might  join  the  expedition  were  required  to  obey  Dr.  Living- 
stone's directions  as  leader. 

"  We  managed  your  affair  very  nicely,"  Lord  Palmerston 
said  to  Livingstone  at  a  reception  at  Lady  Palmerston's  on 
the  12th  December.  "  Had  we  waited  till  the  usual  time 
•when  Parliament  should  be  asked,  it  would  have  been  too 
late."  Lord  Shaftesbury,  at  the  reception,  assured  him  that 
the  country  would  do  everything  for  him,  and  congratu- 
lated him  on  going  out  in  the  way  now  settled.  So  did  the 
Lord  Chancellor  (Cranworth),  Sir  Culling  Eardley,  and  Mr. 
Calcraft,  M.P. 

Dr.  Livingstone  was  on  the  most  friendly  terms  with  the 
Portuguese  Ambassador,  the  Count  de  Lavradio,  who  ever 
avowed  the  highest  respect  for  himself,  and  a  strong  desire 
to  help  him  in  his  work.  To  get  this  assurance  turned 
into  substantial  assistance  appeared  to  Livingstone  to  be  of 
the  very  highest  importance.  Unless  strong  influence  were 
brought  to  bear  on  the  local  Portuguese  Governors  in  Africa, 
his  scheme  would  be  wrecked.  The  Portuguese  Ambassa- 
dor was  then  at  Lisbon,  and  Livingstone  had  resolved  to  go 
there,  to  secure  the  influence  from  headquarters  which  was 
so  necessary.  The  Prince  Consort  had  promised  to  intro- 
duce him  to  his  cousin,  the  King  of  Portugal.  There  were, 
however,  some  obstacles  to  his  going.  Yellow  fever  was 
raging  at  Lisbon,  and  moreover,  time  was  precious,  and  a 
little  delay  might  lead  to  the  loss  of  a  season  on  the  Zam- 
besi. At  Lady  Palmerston's  reception.  Lord  Palmerston 
had  said  to  him  that  Lord  Clarendon  might  manage  the 
Portuguese  affair  without  his  going  to  Lisbon.  A  day  or 
two  after,  Livingstone  saw  Lord  Clarendon,  who  confirmed 
Lord  Palmerston's  opinion,  and  assured  him  that  when 
Lavradio  returned,  the  affair  would  be  settled.  The  Lisbon 
journey  was  accordingly  given  up.  The  Count  returned 
to  London  before  Livingstone  left,  and  expressed  a  wish  to 
send  a  number  of  Portuguese  agents  along  with  him.  But 
to  this  both  Lord  Clarendon  and  he  had  the  strongest 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  249 

objections,  as  complicating  the  expedition.  Livingstone  was 
furnished  with  letters  from  the  Portuguese  Government 
to  the  local  Governors,  instructing  them  to  give  him  all 
needful  help.  But  when  he  returned  to  the  Zambesi  he 
found  that  these  public  instructions  were  strangely  neu- 
tralized and  reversed  by  some  unseen  process.  He  himself 
believed  to  the  last  in  the  honest  purpose  of  the  King  of 
Portugal,  but  he  had  not  the  same  confidence  in  the  Govern- 
ment. From  some  of  the  notes  written  to  him  at  this  time 
by  friends  who  understood  more  of  diplomacy  than  he  did, 
we  can  see  that  little  actual  help  was  expected  from  the 
local  Governors  in  the  Portuguese  settlements,  one  of  these 
friends  expressing  the  conviction  that  "the  sooner  those 
Portuguese  dogs-in-the-manger  are  eaten  up,  body  and 
bones,  by  the  Zulu  Caffres,  the  better." 

The  co-operation  of  Lord  Clarendon  was  very  cordial. 
"  He  told  me  to  go  to  Washington  (of  the  Admiralty)  as  if 
all  had  been  arranged,  and  do  everything  necessary,  and 
come  to  him  for  everything  I  needed.  He  repeated,  '  Just 
come  here  and  tell  me  what  you  want,  and  I  will  give  it 
you.'  He  was  wonderfully  kind.  I  thank  God  who  gives 
the  influence."  Among  other  things.  Lord  Clarendon  wrote 
an  official  letter  to  the  chief  Sekeletu,  thanking  him,  in  the 
name  of  the  Queen,  for  his  kindness  and  help  to  her  servant, 
Dr.  Livingstone,  explaining  the  desire  of  the  British  nation, 
as  a  commercial  and  Christian  people,  to  live  at  peace  with 
all  and  to  benefit  all ;  telling  him,  too,  what  they  thought 
of  the  slave-trade ;  hoping  that  Sekeletu  would  help  to  keep 
"God's  highway,"  the  river  Zambesi,  as  a  free  pathway  for 
all  nations ;  assuring  him  of  friendship  and  good-will ;  and 
respectfully  hinting  that,  "  as  we  have  derived  all  our  great- 
ness from  the  divine  religion  we  received  from  heaven,  it 
will  be  well  if  you  consider  it  carefully  when  any  of  our 
people  talk  to  you  about  it."^ 

Most  men,  after  receiving  such   carte  blanche  as   Lord 

^  See  Appendix  No.  IV. 


250  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Clarendon  had  given  to  Livingstone,  would  have  been 
drawing  out  plans  on  a  large  scale,  regardless  of  expense. 
Livingstone's  ideas  were  quite  in  the  opposite  direction. 
Instead  of  having  to  press  Captain  Washington,  he  had  to 
restrain  him.  The  expedition  as  planned  by  Washington, 
with  commander  and  assistant,  and  a  large  staff  of  officers, 
was  too  expensive.  All  that  Livingstone  wished  was  a 
steam  launch,  with  an  economic  botanist,  a  practical  mining 
geologist,  and  an  assistant.  All  was  to  be  plain  and  prac- 
tical ;  nothing  was  wished  for  ornament  or  show. 

Before  we  come  to  the  last  adieus,  it  is  well  to  glance  at 
the  remarkable  effect  of  Dr.  Livingstone's  short  visit,  in 
connection  with  his  previous  labors,  on  the  public  opinion 
v^f  the  country  in  regard  to  Africa.  In  the  first  place,  as 
we  have  already  remarked,  there  was  quite  a  revolution  of 
ideas  as  to  the  interior  of  the  country.  It  astonished  men 
to  find  that,  instead  of  a  vast  sandy  desert,  it  was  so  rich 
and  productive  a  land,  and  merchants  came  to  see  that  if 
only  a  safe  and  wholesome  traffic  could  be  introduced,  the 
result  would  be  hardly  less  beneficial  to  them  than  to  tho 
people  of  Africa.  In  the  second  place,  a  new  idea  was  given 
of  the  African  people.  Caffre  wars  and  other  mismanaged 
enterprises  had  brought  out  the  wildest  aspects  of  the  native 
character,  and  had  led  to  the  impression  that  the  blacks 
were  just  as  brutish  and  ferocious  as  the  tigers  and  croco- 
diles among  which  they  lived.  But  Livingstone  showed, 
as  Moffat  had  showed  before  him,  that,  rightly  dealt  with, 
they  were  teachable  and  companionable,  full  of  respect  for 
the  white  man,  affectionate  toward  him  when  he  treated 
them  well,  and  eager  to  have  him  dwelling  among  them. 
On  the  slave-trade  of  the  interior  he  had  thrown  a  ghastly 
light,  although  it  was  reserved  to  him  in  his  future  journeys 
to  make  a  full  exposure  of  the  devil's  work  in  that  infamous 
traffic.  He  had  thrown  light,  too,  or  the  structure  of 
Africa,  shown  where  healthy  localities  were  to  be  found, 
copiously  illustrated  its  fauna  and  flora,  discovered  great 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME,  251 

rivers  and  lakes,  and  laid  tliem  down  on  its  map  with  the 
greatest  accuracy ;  and  he  had  shown  how  its  most  virulent 
disease  might  be  reduced  to  the  category  of  an  ordinary 
cold.  In  conjunction  with  other  great  African  travelers, 
he  had  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  great  increase  of 
popularity  which  had  been  acquired  by  the  Geographical 
Society.  He  had  shown  abundance  of  openings  for  Christian 
missions  from  Kuruman  to  the  Zambesi,  and  from  Loanda 
to  Quilimane.  He  had  excited  no  little  compassion  for  the 
negro,  by  vivid  pictures  of  his  dark  and  repulsive  life,  with 
so  much  misery  in  it  and  so  little  joy.  In  the  cause  of 
missions  he  did  not  appeal  in  vain.  At  the  English  Uni- 
versities, young  men  of  ability  and  promise  got  new  light 
on  the  purposes  of  life,  and  wondered  that  they  had  not 
thought  sooner  of  offering  themselves  for  such  noble  work. 
In  Scotland,  men  like  James  Stewart,  now  of  Lovedale, 
were  set  thinking  whether  they  should  not  give  themselves 
to  Africa,  and  older  men,  like  Mr.  R.  A.  Macfie  and  the  late 
Mr.  James  Cunningham,  of  Edinburgh,  were  pondering  in 
what  manner  the  work  could  be  begun.  The  London 
Missionary  Society,  catching  up  Livingstone's  watchword 
"  Onward,"  were  planning  a  mission  at  Linyanti,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Zambesi.  Mr.  Moffat  was  about  to  pay  a  visit 
to  the  great  Mosilikatse,  with  a  view  to  the  commencement 
of  a  mission  to  the  Matebele.  As  for  Livingstone  himself, 
his  heart  was  yearning  after  his  friends  the  Makololo.  He 
had  been  quite  willing  to  go  and  be  their  missionary,  but 
in  the  meantime  other  duty  called  him.  Not  being  aware 
of  any  purpose  to  plant  a  mission  among  them,  he  made 
an  arrangement  with  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  John  Moffat, 
to  become  their  missionary.  Out  of  his  private  resources 
he  promised  him  £500,  for  outfit,  etc.,  and  £150  a  year  for 
five  years  as  salary,  besides  other  sums,  amounting  in  all 
to  £1400.  Nearly  three  years  of  his  own  salary  as  Consul 
(£500)  were  thus  pledged  and  paid.  In  one  word,  Africa, 
which  had  long  been  a  symbol  of  all  that  is  dry  and 


262  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

uninviting,  suddenly  became  the  most  interesting  part  of 
the  globe. 

As  the  time  of  Dr.  Livingstone's  departure  for  Africa 
drew  near,  a  strong  desire  arose  among  many  of  his  friends, 
chiefly  the  geographers,  to  take  leave  of  him  in  a  way  that 
should  emphatically  mark  the  strength  of  their  admiration 
and  the  cordiality  of  their  good  wishes.  It  was  accordingly 
resolved  that  he  should  be  invited  to  a  public  dinner  on 
the  13th  February,  1858,  and  that  Sir  Roderick  Murchison 
should  occupy  the  chair.  On  the  morning  of  that  day  he 
had  the  honor  of  an  interview  with  Her  Majesty  the 
Queen.  A  Scottish  correspondent  of  an  American  journal, 
whose  letter  at  other  points  shows  that  he  had  good  infor- 
mation,* after  referring  to  the  fact  that  Livingstone  was  not 
presented  in  the  usual  way,  says : 

"  He  was  honored  by  the  Queen  with  a  private  interview. 
She  sent  for  Livingstone,  who  attended  Her  Majesty  at  the  palace, 
without  ceremony,  in  his  black  coat  and  blue  trousers,  and  his  cap 
surrounded  with  a  stripe  of  gold  lace.  This  was  his  usual  attire,  and 
the  cap  had  now  become  the  appropriate  distinction  of  one  of  Her 
Majesty's  consuls,  an  official  position  to  which  the  traveler  attaches 
great  importance,  as  giving  him  consequence  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives, 
and  authority  over  the  members  of  the  expedition.  The  Queen  conversed 
with  him  affably  for  half  an  hour  on  the  subject  of  his  travels.  Dr. 
Livingstone  told  Her  Majesty  that  he  would  now  be  able  to  say  to  the 
natives  that  he  had  seen  his  chief,  his  not  having  done  so  before  having 
been  a  constant  subject  of  surprise  to  the  children  of  the  African  wilder- 
ness. He  mentioned  to  Her  Majesty  also  that  the  people  were  in  the 
habit  of  inquiring  whether  his  chief  were  wealthy;  and  that  when  he 
assured  them  she  was  very  wealthy,  they  would  ask  how  many  cows 
she  had  got,  a  question  at  which  the  Queen  laughed  heartily." 

In  the  only  notice  of  this  interview  which  we  have  found 
in  Livingstone's  own  writing,  he  simply  says  that  Her 
Majesty  assured  him  of  her  good  wishes  in  his  journeys. 
It  was  the  only  interview  with  his  Sovereign  he  ever  had. 

*  We  have  ascertained  that  the  correspondent  was  the  late  Mr,  Keddie,  of  the 
Glasgow  Free  Church  College,  who  got  his  information  from  Mr.  James  Young. 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  253 

When  he  returned  in  1864  he  said  that  he  would  have  been 
pleased  to  have  another,  but  only  if  it  came  naturally,  and 
without  his  seeking  it.  The  Queen  manifested  the  greatest 
interest  in  him,  and  showed  great  kindness  to  his  family, 
when  the  rumor  came  of  his  death. 

The  banquet  in  Freemason's  Tavern,  which  it  had  been 
intended  to  limit  to  250  guests,  overflowed  the  allotted 
bounds,  and  was  attended  by  upward  of  350,  including  the 
Ministers  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  and  of  Denmark;  Dukes 
of  Argyll  and  Wellington ;  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  and  Earl 
Grey;  Bishops  of  Oxford  and  St.  David's;  and  hosts  of 
other  celebrities  in  almost  every  department  of  public  life. 
The  feeling  was  singularly  cordial.  Sir  Roderick  rehearsed 
the  services  of  Livingstone,  crowning  them,  as  was  his  wont, 
with  that  memorable  act — his  keeping  his  promise  to  his 
black  servants  by  returning  with  them  from  Loan  da  to  the 
heart  of  Africa,  in  spite  of  all  the  perils  of  the  way,  and 
all  the  attractions  of  England,  thereby  "  leaving  for  him- 
self in  that  country  a  glorious  name,  and  proving  to  the 
people  of  Africa  what  an  English  Christian  is."  Still  more, 
perhaps,  did  Sir  Roderick  touch  the  heart  of  the  audience 
when  he  said  of  Livingstone  "that  notwithstanding  eighteen 
months  of  laudation,  so  justly  bestowed  on  him  by  all 
classes  of  his  countrymen,  and  after  receiving  all  the 
honors  which  the  Universities  and  cities  of  our  country 
could  shower  upon  him,  he  is  still  the  same  honest,  true- 
hearted  David  Livingstone  as  when  he  issued  from  the 
wilds  of  Africa."  It  was  natural  for  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
to  recall  the  fact  that  Livingstone's  family  was  an  Argyll- 
shire one,  and  it  was  a  happy  thought  that  as  Ulva  was 
close  to  lona— "that  illustrious  island,"  as  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson  called  it,  "whence  roving  tribes  and  rude  bar- 
barians derived  the  benefits  of  knowledge  and  the  blessings 
of  religion," — so  might  the  son  of  Ulva  carry  the  same 
blessings  to  Africa,  and  be  remembered,  perhaps,  by  millions 
of  the  human  race  as  the  first  pioneer  of  civilization,  and 
22 


254  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

the  first  harbinger  of  the  gospel.  It  was  graceful  in  the 
Bishop  of  Oxford  (Samuel  Wilberforce)  to  advert  to  ^^Q 
debt  of  unparalleled  magnitude  which  England,  founder 
of  the  accursed  slave-trade,  owed  to  Africa,  and  to  urge 
the  immediate  prosecution  of  Livingstone's  plans,  inas- 
much as  the  spots  in  Africa,  where  the  so-called  Christian 
trader  had  come,  were  marked,  more  than  any  other,  by 
crime  and  distrust,  and  insecurity  of  life  and  property. 
It  was  a  good  opportunity  for  Professor  Owen  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  spiral  tusk,  to  rehearse  some  remarkable  in- 
stances of  Livingstone's  accurate  observations  and  happy 
conjectures  on  the  habits  of  animals,  to  rate  him  for  de- 
stroying the  moral  character  of  the  lion,  and  to  claim 
credit  for  having  discovered,  in  the  bone  caves  of  England, 
the  remains  of  an  animal  of  greater  bulk  than  any  living 
species,  that  may  have  possessed  all  the  qualities  which  the 
most  ardent  admirer  of  the  British  lion  could  desire!^ 

On  no  topic  was  the  applause  of  the  company  more 
enthusiastic  than  when  mention  was  made  of  Mrs.  Living- 
stone, who  w^as  then  preparing  to  accompany  her  husband 
on  his  journey.  Livingstone's  own  words  to  the  company 
were  simple  and  hearty,  but  they  were  the  words  of  truth 
and  soberness.  He  was  overwhelmed  with  the  kindness  he 
had  experienced.  He  did  not  expect  any  speedy  result 
from  the  Expedition,  but  he  was  sanguine  as  to  its  ultimate 
benefit.  He  thought  they  would  get  in  the  thin  end  of  the 
wedge,  and  that  it  would  be  driven  home  by  English 
energy  and  spirit.  For  himself,  with  all  eyes  resting  upon 
him,  he  felt  under  an  obligation  to  do  better  than  he  had 
ever  done.     And  as  to  Mrs.  Livingstone : 

"  It  is  scarcely  fair  to  ask  a  man  to  praise  his  own  wife,  but  I  can 
only  say  that  when  I  parted  from  her  at  the  Cape,  telling  her  that  I 

^Livingtone  purposed  to  bequeath  to  Professor  Owen  a  somewhat  extraor- 
dinary legacy.  Writing  afterward  to  his  friend  Mr.  Young,  he  said:  "If 
I  die  at  home  I  would  lie  beside  you.  My  left  arm  goes  to  Professor  Oweiii 
mind.     That  is  the  will  of  David  Livingstone." 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  255 

should  return  in  two  years,  and  when  it  happened  that  I  was  absent  four 
years  and  a  half,  I  supposed  that  I  should  appear  before  her  with  a 
damaged  character.  I  was,  however,  forgiven.  My  wife,  who  has 
always  been  the  main  spoke  in  my  wheel,  will  accompany  me  in  this 
expedition,  and  will  be  most  useful  to  me.  She  is  familiar  with  the 
languages  of  South  Africa.  She  is  able  to  work.  She  is  willing  to 
endure,  and  she  well  knows  that  in  that  country  one  must  put  one's 
hand  to  everything.  In  the  country  to  which  I  am  about  to  proceed 
she  knows  that  at  the  missionary's  station  the  wife  must  be  the  maid- 
of-all-work  within,  while  the  husband  must  be  the  jack-of-all-trades 
without,  and  glad  am  I  indeed  that  I  am  to  be  accompanied  by  my 
guardian  angel." 

Of  the  many  letters  of  adieu  he  received  before  setting 
out  we  have  space  for  only  two.  The  first  came  from  the 
venerable  Professor  Sedgwick,  of  Cambridge,  in  the  form 
of  an  apology  for  inability  to  attend  the  farewell  banquet. 
It  is  a  beautiful  unfolding  of  the  head  and  heart  of  the 
Christian  philosopher,  and  must  have  been  singularly 
welcome  to  Livingstone,  whose  views  on  some  of  the 
greatest  subjects  of  thought  were  in  thorough  harmony 
with  those  of  his  friend: 

^^  Cambridge,  February/  10,  1858. — Mt  dear  Sie, — ^Your  kind  and  very 
welcome  letter  came  to  me  yesterday ;  and  I  take  the  first  moment  of 
leisure  to  thank  you  for  it,  and  to  send  you  a  few  more  words  of  good- 
will, along  with  my  prayers  that  God  may,  for  many  years,  prolong 
your  life  and  the  lives  of  those  who  are  most  near  and  dear  to  you,  and 
that  he  may  support  you  in  all  coming  trials,  and  crown  with  a  success, 
far  transcending  your  own  hopes,  your  endeavors  for  the  good  of  our 
poor  humble  fellow-creatures  in  Africa. 

"There  is  but  one  God,  the  God  who  created  all  worlds  and  the 
natural  laws  whereby  they  are  governed ;  and  the  God  of  revealed  truth, 
who  tells  us  of  our  destinies  in  an  eternal  world  to  come.  All  truth  of 
whatever  kind  has  therefore  its  creator  in  the  will  and  essence  of  that 
great  God  who  created  all  things,  moral  and  natural.  Great  and  good 
men  have  long  upheld  this  grand  conclusion.  But,  alas  I  such  is  too 
often  our  bigotry,  or  ignorance,  or  selfishness,  that  we  try  to  divorce 
religious  and  moral  from  natural  truth,  as  if  they  were  inconsistent  and 
in  positive  antagonism  one  to  the  other, — a  true  catholic  spirit  (oh  that 
the  word  'catholic'  had  not  been  so  horribly  abused  by  the  foul  deeds 
oi  men  I)  teaching  ua  that  all  truths  are  linked  together,  and  that  all 


256  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

art  and  science,  and  all  material  discoveries  (each  held  in  J:3  proper 
place  and  subordination),  may  be  used  to  minister  to  the  diffusion  of 
Christian  truth  among  men,  with  all  its  blessed  fruits  of  peace  and 
good-will.  This  is,  I  believe,  your  faith,  as  I  see  it  shining  out  in  your 
deeds,  and  set  forth  in  the  pages  of  your  work  on  Southern  Africa, 
which  I  have  studied  througli  from  beginning  to  end  with  sentiments 
of  reverence  and  honor  for  the  past  and  good  hopes  for  the  future. 

"  What  a  glorious  prospect  is  before  you  1  the  commencement  of  the 
civilization  of  Africa,  the  extension  of  our  knowledge  of  all  the  king- 
doms of  nature,  the  production  of  great  material  benefits  to  the  Old 
World,  the  gradual  healing  of  that  foul  and  fetid  ulcer,  the  slave-trade, 
the  one  grand  disgrace  and  weakness  of  Christendom,  and  that  has 
defiled  the  hands  of  all  those  who  have  had  any  dealings  with  it ;  and 
last,  but  cot  least — nay,  the  greatest  of  all,  and  the  true  end  of  all — 
the  lifting  up  of  the  poor  African  from  the  earth,  the  turning  his  face 
heavenward,  and  the  glory  of  at  length  (after  all  his  sufferings  and  all 
our  sins)  calling  him  a  Christian  brother.  May  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
bless  your  labors,  and  may  his  Holy  Spirit  be  with  you  to  the  end  of 
your  life  upon  this  troubled  world  1 

"  I  am  an  old  man,  and  I  shall  (so  far  as  I  am  permitted  to  look  at 
the  future)  never  see  your  face  again.  If  I  live  till  the  22d  of  March  I 
shall  have  ended  my  73d  year,  and  not  only  from  what  we  all  know 
from  the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  but  from  what  I  myself  know  and 
feel  from  the  experience  of  the  two  past  years,  I  am  assured  that  I 
have  not  long  to  live.  How  long,  Grod  only  knows.  It  grieves  me  not 
to  have  seen  you  again  in  London,  and  I  did  hope  that  you  might 
yourself  introduce  me  to  your  wife  and  children.  I  hear  that  a  fare- 
well dinner  is  to  be  given  you  on  Saturday,  and  greatly  should  I  rejoice 
to  be  present  on  that  occasion,  and  along  with  many  other  true-hearted 
friends  wish  you  '  God-speed.'  But  it  must  not  be.  I  am  not  a  close 
prisoner  to  my  room,  as  I  was  some  weeks  past,  but  I  am  still  on  the 
sick  list,  and  dare  not  expose  myself  to  any  sudden  change  of  tempera- 
ture, or  to  the  excitement  of  a  public  meeting.  This  is  one  of  the 
frailties  of  old  age  and  infirm  health.  I  have  gone  on  writing  and 
writing  more  than  I  intended.  Once  for  all,  God  bless  you!  and  pray 
(though  I  do  not  personally  know  them)  give  my  best  and  Christian 
love  to  your  dear  wife  (Ma-Robert  she  was  called,  I  think,  in  Africa) 
and  children.     Ever  gratefully  and  affectionately  yours, 

"  A.  Sedgwick." 

Sir  Roderick,  too,  had  a  kind  parting  word  for  his 
friend:  "Accept  my  warmest  acknowledgments  for  your 
last  farewell  note.    Believe  me,  my  dear  friend,  that  no 


FIRST  VISIT  HOME.  ;  257 

transaction  in  my  somewhat  long  and  very  active  life  has 
so  truly  rewarded  me  as  my  intercourse  with  you,  for, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  it  has  been  one  continued 
bright  gleam." 

To  this  note  Livingstone,  as  was  his  wont,  made  a 
hearty  and  Christian  response :  "  Many  blessings  be  on 
you  and  yours,  and  if  we  never  meet  again  on  earth,  may 
we  through  infinite  mercy  meet  in  heaven !" 

The  last  days  in  England  were  spent  in  arrangements 
for  the  expedition,  settling  family  plans,  and  bidding  fare- 
well. Mrs.  Livingstone  accompanied  her  husband,  along 
with  Oswell,  their  youngest  child.  Dr.  Livingstone's  heart 
was  deeply  affected  in  parting  with  his  other  children. 
Amid  all  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  leaving  he  snatches  a 
few  minutes  almost  daily  for  a  note  to  one  or  more  of 
them: 

"London,  2d  February,  1858. — My  dear  Tom, — ^I  am  soon  going  off 
from  this  country,  and  will  leave  you  to  the  care  of  Him  who  neither 
slumbers  nor  sleeps,  and  never  disappointed  any  one  who  put  his  trust 
in  Him.  If  you  make  him  your  friend  He  will  be  better  to  you  than 
any  companion  can  be.  He  is  a  friend  that  sticketh  closer  than  a 
brother.  May  He  grant  you  grace  to  seek  Him  and  to  serve  Him.  I 
have  nothing  better  to  say  to  you  than  to  take  God  for  your  Father, 
Jesus  for  your  Saviour,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  for  your  sanctifier.  Do 
this  and  you  are  safe  for  ever.  No  evil  can  then  befall  you.  Hope 
you  will  learn  quickly  and  well,  so  as  to  be  fitted  for  God's  service  in 
the  world." 

"  '■Pearl,''  in  the  Mersey,  lOth  March,  1858. — ^My  dear  Tom, — We  are 
off  again,  and  we  trust  that  He  who  rules  the  waves  will  watch  over  us 
and  remain  with  you,  to  bless  us  and  make  us  blessings  to  our  fellow- 
men.  The  Lord  be  with  you,  and  be  very  gracious  to  you !  Avoid 
and  hate  sin,  and  cleave  to  Jesus  as  your  Saviour  from  guilt.  Tell 
grandma  we  are  off  again,  and  Janet  will  tell  all  about  us." 

In  his  letters  to  his  children  from  first  to  last,  the 
counsel  most  constantly  and  most  earnestly  pressed  is  to 
take  Jesus  for  their  friend.  The  personal  Saviour  is  con- 
tinually present  to  his  heart,  as  th*^  one  inestimable  treasure 


258  DAVID  LIVINGSTO^,^ 

which  he  longs  for  them  to  secure.  I'Hat  treasure  had 
been  a  source  of  unspeakable  peace  and  joy  to  himself 
amid  all  the  trials  and  troubles  of  his  ciieckered  life ;  if 
his  children  were  only  in  friendship  with  Him,  he  could 
breathe  freely  in  leaving  them,  and  feel  that  they  would 
indeed  fare  well. 


THE  ZAMBESI,  259 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   ZAMBESI,  AND   FIRST   EXPLORATIONS   OP  THE   SHIRK 

A.D.  1858-1859. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone  sail  in  the  •*  Pearl" — Characteristic  instructions  to 
members  of  Expedition — Dr.  Livingstone  conscious  of  difficult  position — 
Letter  to  Robert — Sierra  Leone — Effects  of  British  Squadron  and  of  Christian 
Missions — Dr.  and  Mrs.  Moffat  at  Cape  Town — Splendid  reception  there — 
Illness  of  Mrs.  Livingstone — She  remains  behind — The  five  years  of  the 
Expedition — Letter  to  Mr.  James  Young — to  Dr.  Moffat — Kongone  entrance 
to  Zambesi — Collision  with  Naval  Ofi&cer — Disturbed  state  of  the  country — 
Trip  to  Kebrabasa  Rapids — Dr.  Livingstone  applies  for  new  steamer — 
Willing  to  pay  for  one  himself — Exploration  of  the  Shir6 — Murchison  Cata- 
racts— Extracts  from  private  Journal — Discovery  of  Lake  Shirwa — Corres- 
pondence— Letters  to  Agnes  Livingstone — Trip  to  Tette — Kroomen  and  two 
members  of  Expedition  dismissed — Livingstone's  vindication — Discovery  of 
Lake  Nyassa — Bright  hopes  for  the  future — Idea  of  a  colony — Generosity 
of  Livingstone — Letters  to  Mr.  Maclear,  Mr.  Young,  and  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison — His  sympathy  with  the  "honest  poor" — He  hears  of  the  birth 
of  his  youngest  daughter. 

On  the  10th  March  1858,  Dr.  Livingstone,  accompanied 
by  Mrs.  Livingstone,  their  youngest  son,  Oswell,  and  the 
members  of  his  Expedition,  sailed  from  Liverpool  on  board 
Her  Majesty's  colonial  steamer,  the  "Pearl,"  which  carried 
the  sections  of  the  "Ma-Robert,"  the  steam  launch  with 
Mrs.  Livingstone's  African  name,  which  was  to  be  perma- 
nently used  in  the  exploration  of  the  Zambesi  and  its 
tributaries.  At  starting,  the  "  Pearl"  had  fine  weather  and 
a  favorable  wind,  and  quickly  ran  down  the  Channel  and 
across  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  With  that  business-like  pre- 
cision which  characterized  him,  Livingstone,  as  soon  as 
sea-sickness  was  over,  had  the  instructions  of  the  Foreign 


W)  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Ofifice  read  in  presence  of  all  the  members  of  the  Expedi- 
tion, and  he  afterward  wrote  out  and  delivered  to  each 
person  a  specific  statement  of  the  duties  expected  of  him. 

In  these  very  characteristic  papers,  it  is  interesting  to 
observe  that  his  first  business  was  to  lay  down  to  each 
man  his  specific  work,  this  being  done  for  the  purpose  of 
avoiding  confusion  and  collision,  acknowledging  each 
man's  gifts,  and  making  him  independent  in  his  own 
sphere.  While  no  pains  were  to  be  spared  to  make  the 
Expedition  successful  in  its  scientific  and  commercial  aims, 
and  while,  for  this  purpose,  great  stress  was  laid  on  the 
subsidiary  instructions  prepared  by  Professor  Owen,  Sir 
W.  Hooker,  and  Sir  R.  Murchison,  Dr.  Livingstone  showed 
still  more  earnestness  in  urging  duties  of  a  higher  class, 
giving  to  all  the  same  wise  and  most  Christian  counsel  to 
maintain  the  moral  of  the  Expedition  at  the  highest  point, 
especially  in  dealing  with  the  natives : 

"You  will  understand  that  Her  Majesty's  Government  attach  more 
importance  to  the  moral  influence  which  may  be  exerted  on  the  minds 
of  the  natives  by  a  well-regulated  and  orderly  household  of  Europeans, 
setting  an  example  of  consistent  moral  conduct  to  all  who  may  congre- 
gate around  the  settlement;  treating  the  people  with  kindness,  and 
relieving  their  wants ;  teaching  them  to  make  experiments  in  agricul- 
ture, explaining  to  them  the  more  simple  arts,  imparting  to  them 
religious  instruction,  as  far  as  they  are  capable  of  receiving  it,  and 
inculcating  peace  and  good-will  to  each  other. 

"  The  expedition  is  well  supplied  with  arms  and  ammunition,  and 
it  will  be  necessary  to  use  these  in  order  to  obtain  supplies  of  food,  as 
well  as  to  procure  specimens  for  the  purposes  of  Natural  History.  In 
many  parts  of  the  country  which  we  hope  to  traverse,  the  larger  ani- 
mals exist  in  great  numbers,  and,  being  comparatively  tame,  may  be 
easily  shot.  I  would  earnestly  press  on  every  member  of  the  expedi- 
tion a  sacred  regard  to  life,  and  never  to  destroy  it  unless  some  good 
end  is  to  be  answered  by  its  extinction  ;  the  wanton  waste  of  animal 
life  which  I  have  witnessed  from  night-hunting,  and  from  the  ferocious, 
but  childlike,  abuse  of  the  instruments  of  destruction  in  the  hands  of 
Europeans,  makes  me  anxious  that  this  expedition  should  not  be  guilty 
of  similar  abominations. 

"  It  is  hoped  that  we  may  never  have  occasion  to  use  our  arms  for 


THE  ZAMBESI.  261 

protection  from  the  natives,  but  the  best  security  from  attack  consists 
in  upright  conduct,  and  the  natives  seeing  that  we  are  prepared  to  meet 
it.  At  the  same  time,  you  are  strictly  enjoined  to  exercise  the  greatest 
forbearance  toward  the  people  5  and,  while  retaining  proper  firmness 
in  the  event  of  any  misunderstanding,  to  conciliate,  as  far  as  possibly 
can  be  done  with  safety  to  our  party. 

"  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  enjoin  the  strictest  justice  in  dealing  with 
the  natives.  This  your  own  principles  will  lead  you  invariably  to 
follow,  but  while  doing  so  yourself,  it  is  decidedly  necessary  to  be  care- 
ful not  to  appear  to  overreach  or  insult  any  one  by  the  conduct  of  those 
under  your  command.     .     .     . 

*'  The  chiefs  of  tribes  and  leading  men  of  villages  ought  always  to  be 
treated  with  respect,  and  nothing  should  be  done  to  weaken  their 
authority.  Any  present  of  food  should  be  accepted  frankly,  as  it  is  im* 
politic  to  allow  the  ancient  custom  of  feeding  strangers  to  go  into  dis- 
use. We  come  among  them  as  members  of  a  superior  race,  and 
servants  of  a  Government  that  desires  to  elevate  the  more  degraded 
portions  of  the  human  family.  We  are  adherents  of  a  benign,  holy 
religion,  and  may,  by  consistent  conduct,  and  wise,  patient  efforts, 
become  the  harbingers  of  peace  to  a  hitherto  distracted  and  trodden- 
down  race.  No  great  result  is  ever  attained  without  patient,  long- 
continued  effort.  In  the  enterprise  in  which  we  have  the  honor  to  be 
engaged,  deeds  of  sympathy,  consideration,  and  kindness,  which,  when 
viewed  in  detail,  may  seem  thrown  away,  if  steadily  persisted  in,  are 
sure,  ultimately,  to  exercise  a  commanding  influence.  Depend  upon  it, 
a  kind  word  or  deed  is  never  lost." 

Evidently,  Dr.  Livingstone  felt  himself  in  a  difficult 
position  at  the  head  of  this  enterprise.  He  was  aware  of 
the  trouble  that  had  usually  attended  civil  as  contrasted 
with  naval  and  military  expeditions,  from  the  absence  of 
that  habit  of  discipline  and  obedience  which  is  so  firmly 
established  in  the  latter  services.  He  had  never  served 
under  Her  Majesty's  Government  himself,  nor  had  he  been 
accustomed  to  command  such  men  as  were  now  under  him, 
and  there  were  some  things  in  his  antecedents  that  made 
the  duty  peculiarly  difficult.  On  one  thing  only  he  was 
resolved:  to  do  his  own  duty  to  the  utmost,  and  to  spare 
no  pains  to  induce  every  member  of  the  Expedition  to  do 
his.  It  was  impossible  for  him  not  to  be  anxious  as  to 
how  the  team  would  pull  together,  especially  as  he  knew 


262  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

well  the  influence  of  a  malarious  atmosphere  in  causing  in- 
tense irritability  of  temper.  In  some  respects,  though  not 
the  most  obvious,  this  was  the  most  trying  period  of  his 
life.  His  letters  and  other  written  papers  show  one  little 
but  not  uninstructive  effect  of  the  pressure  and  distraction 
that  now  came  on  him — in  the  great  change  which  his 
handwriting  underwent — the  neat,  regular  writing  of  his 
youth  giving  place  to  a  large  and  heavy ish  hand,  as  if  he 
had  never  had  time  to  mend  his  pen,  and  his  only  thought 
had  been  how  to  get  on  most  quickly.  Yet  we  see  also, 
very  clearly,  how  nobly  he  strove  after  self-control  and 
conciliatory  ways.  The  tone  of  courtesy,  the  recognition 
of  each  man's  independence  in  his  own  sphere,  and  the 
appeal  to  his  good  sense  and  good  feeling,  apparent  in  the 
instructions,  show  a  studious  desire,  while  he  took  and  in- 
tended to  keep  his  place  as  Commander,  to  conceal  the 
symbols  of  authority,  and  bind  the  members  of  the  party 
together  as  a  band  of  brothers.  And  though  in  his 
published  book.  The  Zambesi  and  its  Tributaries,  which  was 
mainly  a  report  of  his  doings  to  the  Government  and  the 
nation,  he  confined  himself  to  the  matters  with  which  he 
had  been  intrusted  by  them,  there  are  many  little  proofs 
of  his  seeking  wisdom  and  strength  from  above  with  un- 
diminished earnestness,  and  of  his  striving,  as  much  as 
ever,  to  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God. 

As  the  swift  motion  of  the  ship  bears  him  farther  and 
farther  from  home,  he  cannot  but  think  of  his  orphan 
children.  As  they  near  Sierra  Leone,  on  the  25th  March, 
he  sends  a  few  lines  to  his  eldest  son : 

"  My  dear  Robert, — We  have  been  going  at  the  rate  of  200  miles 
a  day  ever  since  we  left  Liverpool,  and  have  been  much  favored  by  a 
kind  Providence  in  the  weather.  Poor  Oswell  was  sorely  sick  while 
rolling  through  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  ate  nothing  for  about  three  days; 
but  we  soon  got  away  from  the  ice  and  enow  to  beautiful  summer 
weather,  and  we  are  getting  nicely  thawed.  We  sleep  with  all  our  port- 
holes open,  and  are  glad  of  the  awning  by  day.  At  night  we  see  tne 
Southera  Cross;  and  the  Pole  Star,  which  standi  so  high  oyer  you,  ie 


THE  ZAMBESI.  263 

h?^re  so  low  we  cannot  see  it  for  the  haze.  We  shall  not  see  it  again, 
bwt  the  same  almighty  gracious  Father  is  over  all,  and  is  near  to  all 
who  love  Him.  You  are  now  alone  in  the  world,  and  must  seek  his 
friendship  and  guidance,  for  if  you  do  not  lean  on  Him,  you  will  go 
astray,  and  find  that  the  way  of  transgressors  is  hard.  The  Lord  be 
^acious  to  you,  and  accept  you,  though  unworthy  of  his  favor." 

Sierra  Leone  was  reached  in  a  fortnight.  Dr.  Living- 
stone was  gratified  to  learn  that,  during  the  last  ten  years, 
the  health  of  the  town  had  improved  greatly — consequent 
on  the  abatement  of  the  "whisky  fever,"  and  the  draining 
and  paving  of  the  streets  through  the  activity  of  Governor 
Hill.  He  found  the  Sunday  as  well  kept  as  in  Scotland, 
and  was  sure  that  posterity  would  acknowledge  the  great 
blessing  which  the  operations  of  the  English  Squadron  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  various  Christian  missions  on  the 
other  had  effected.  He  was  more  than  ever  convinced, 
notwithstanding  all  that  had  been  said  against  it,  that 
the  English  Squadron  had  been  a  great  blessing  on  the 
West  Coast.  The  Christian  missions,  too,  that  had  been 
planted  under  the  protection  of  the  Squadron,  were  an 
evidence  of  its  beneficial  influence.  He  used  constantly 
to  refer  with  intense  gratitude  to  the  work  of  Lord 
Palmerston  in  this  cause,  and  to  the  very  end  of  his 
life  his  Lordship  was  among  the  men  whose  memory 
he  most  highly  honored.  Often,  when  he  wished  to  de- 
scribe his  aim  briefly,  in  regard  to  slavery,  commerce, 
and  missions,  he  would  say  it  was  to  do  on  the  East  Coast 
what  had  been  done  on  the  West.  At  Sierra  Leone  a  crew 
of  twelve  Kroomen  was  engaged  and  taken  on  board  for 
the  navigation  of  the  "  Ma-Robert,"  after  it  should  reach 
the  Zambesi.  On  their  leaving  Sierra  Leone,  the  weather 
became  very  rough,  and  from  the  state  of  Mrs.  Living- 
stone's health,  inclining  very  much  to  fever,  it  was  deem^ 
nec^sary  that  she,  with  Oswell,  should  be  left  at  the  Cape, 
go  to  Kuruman  for  a  time,  and  after  her  coming  confine- 
ment, join  her  husband  on  the  Zambesi  in  1860.    "  This," 


264  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Bays  Livingstone  in  his  Journal,  "  is  a  g/eat  trial  to  me,  for 
had  she  come  on  with  us,  she  might  have  proved  of  essen- 
tial service  to  the  Expedition  in  case  of  sickness  or  other- 
wise ;  but  it  may  all  turn  out  for  the  best."  It  was  the 
first  disappointment,  and  it  was  but  partially  balanced  by 
his  learning  from  Dr.  Moffat,  who,  w^th  his  wife,  met  them 
at  the  Cape,  that  he  had  made  out  his  visit  to  Mosilikatse, 
B-nd  had  learned  that  the  men  whom  Livingstone  had  left 
at  Tette  had  not  returned  home,  so  that  they  would  still 
be  waiting  for  him  there.  He  knew  of  what  value  they 
would  be  to  him  in  explaining  his  intentions  to  the 
natives.  From  Sir  George  Grey,  the  excellent  Governor 
of  the  Cape,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Cape  Town  generally, 
the  Expedition  met  with  an  unusually  cordial  reception. 
At  a  great  meeting  at  the  Exchange,  a  silver  box  contain- 
ing a  testimonial  of  eight  hundred  guineas  was  presented 
to  Livingstone  by  the  Governor;  and  two  days  after,  a 
grand  dinner  was  given  to  the  members  of  the  Expedition, 
the  Attorney-General  being  in  the  chair.  Mr.  Maclear  was 
most  enthusiastic  in  the  reception  of  his  friend,  and  at  the 
public  meeting  had  so  much  to  say  about  him  that  he 
could  hardly  be  brought  to  a  close.  It  must  have  been 
highly  amusing  to  Livingstone  to  contrast  Cape  Town  in 
1852  with  Cape  Town  in  1858.  In  1852  he  was  so  sus- 
pected that  he  could  hardly  get  a  pound  of  gunpowder  or 
a  box  of  caps  while  preparing  for  his  unprecedented  jour' 
ney,  and  he  had  to  pay  a  heavy  fine  to  get  rid  of  a  can- 
tankerous post-master.  Now  he  returns  with  the  Queen's 
gold  band  round  his  cap,  and  with  brighter  decorations 
round  his  name  than  Sovereigns  can  give;  and  all  Cape 
Town  hastens  to  honor  him.  It  was  a  great  victory,  as  it 
was  also  a  striking  illustration  of  the  world's  ways. 

It  is  not  our  object  to  follow  Dr.  Livingstone  into  all  the 
details  of  his  Expedition,  but  merely  to  note  a  few  of  the 
more  salient  points,  in  connection  with  the  opportunities 
it  afibrded  for  the  achievement  of  his  object  and  the 


THE  ZAMBESI,  265 

development  of  his  character.  It  may  be  well  to  note  here 
generally  how  the  years  were  occupied.  The  remainder  of 
1858  was  employed  in  exploring  the  mouths  of  the  Zam- 
besi, and  the  river  itself  up  to  Tette  and  the  Kebrabasa 
Rapids,  a  few  miles  beyond.  Next  year — 1859 — was  de- 
voted mainly  to  three  successive  trips  on  the  river  Shire, 
the  third  being  signalized  by  the  discovery  of  Lake 
Nyassa.  In  1860  Livingstone  went  back  with  his  Mako- 
lolo  up  the  Zambesi  to  the  territories  of  Sekeletu.  In  1861, 
after  exploring  the  river  Rovuma,  and  assisting  Bishop 
Mackenzie  to  begin  the  Universities'  Mission,  he  started 
for  Lake  Nyassa,  returning  to  the  ship  toward  the  end  of 
the  year.  In  1862  occurred  the  death  of  the  Bishop  and 
other  missionaries,  and  also,  during  a  detention  at  Shu- 
panga,  the  death  of  Mrs.  Livingstone :  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  year  Livingstone  again  explored  the  Rovuma.  In 
1863  he  was  again  exploring  the  Shire  Valley  and  Lake 
Nyassa,  when  an  order  came  from  Her  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment, recalling  the  Expedition.  In  1864  he  started  in  the 
"  Lady  Nyassa  "  for  Bombay,  and  thence  returned  to  Eng- 
land. 

On  the  1st  May,  1858,  the  "  Pearl"  sailed  from  Simon's 
Bay,  and  on  the  14th  stood  in  for  the  entrance  to  the 
Zambesi,  called  the  West  Luabo,  or  Hoskins's  Branch.  Of 
their  progress  Dr.  Livingstone  gives  his  impressions  in  the 
following  letter  to  his  friend  Mr.  James  Young : 

"  ^  Pearl,'  lO^A  May,  1858. 
"Here  we  are,  off  Cape  Corrientes  ('Whaur's  that,  I  wonner?'), 
and  hope  to  be  off  the  Luabo  four  days  hence.  We  have  been  most 
remarkably  favored  in  the  weather,  and  it  is  well,  for  had  our  ship 
been  in  a  gale  with  all  this  weight  on  her  deck,  it  would  have  been 
perilous.  Mrs.  Livingstone  was  sea-sick  all  the  way  from  Sierra  Leone, 
and  got  as  thin  as  a  lath.  As  this  was  accompanied  by  fever,  I  was 
forced  to  run  into  Table  Bay,  and  when  I  got  ashore  I  found  her  father 
and  mother  down  all  the  way  from  Kuruman  to  see  us  and  help  the 
young  missionaries,  whom  the  London  Missionary  Society  has  not  yet 
sent.  Glad,  of  course,  to  see  the  old  couple  again.  We  had  a  grand 
39 


266  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

to-do  at  the  Cape.  Eight  hundred  guineas  -were  presented  in  a  silvei 
box  by  the  hand  of  the  Governor,  Sir  George  Grey,  a  fine  fellow.  Sure, 
no  one  might  be  more  thankful  to  the  Giver  of  all  than  wiyself.  The 
Lord  grant  me  grace  to  serve  Him  with  heart  and  soul — cae  only  return 
I  can  make  I  ...  It  was  a  bitter  parting  with  my  ^vife,  like  tearing 
the  heart  out  of  one.  It  was  so  unexpected;  and  now  we  are  screwing 
away  up  the  coast.  .  .  .  We  are  all  agreeable  yet,  and  all  looking 
fbrward  with  ardor  to  our  enterprise.  It  is  likely  that  I  shall  come  down 
with  the  '  Pearl'  through  the  Delta  to  doctor  them  if  they  become  ill, 
and  send  them  on  to  Ceylon  with  a  blessing.  All  have  behaved  well, 
and  I  am  really  thankful  to  see  it,  and  hope  that  God  will  graciously 
make  some  better  use  of  us  in  promoting  his  glory.  I  met  a  Dr.  King 
in  Simon's  Bay,  of  the  *  Cambrian'  frigate,  one  of  onr  class-mates  in  the 
Andersonian.  This  frigate,  by  the  way,  saluted  us  handsomely  when 
we  sailed  out.  "We  have  a  man-of-war  to  heip  us  (the  'Hermes'),  but 
the  lazy  muflf  is  far  behind.  He  is,  however,  to  carry  our  despatches  to 
Quilimane.     .     .     ." 

A  letter  to  Dr.  Moffat  lets  us  know  in  what  manner  he 
was  preparing  to  teach  the  twelve  Kroomen  who  were  to 
navigate  the  "  Ma-Robert,"  and  his  old  Makololo  men : 

"  First  of  all,  supposing  Mr.  Skead  should  take  this  back  by  the 
*  Hermes'  in  time  to  catch  you  at  the  Cape,  would  you  be  kind  enough 
to  get  a  form  of  prayer  printed  for  me?  We  have  twelve  Kroomen, 
who  seem  docile  and  willing  to  be  taught;  when  we  are  parted  from 
the  *  Pearl'  we  shall  have  prayers  with  them  every  morning.  ...  I 
think  it  will  be  an  advantage  to  have  the  prayers  in  Sichuana  when 
my  men  join  us,  and  if  we  have  a  selection  from  the  English  Litany, 
with  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  Sichuana,  all  may  join.  Will  you  translate 
it,  beginning  at  'Kemember  not.  Lord,  our  offenses,'  up  to  'the  right 
way'?  Thence,  petition  for  chiefs,  and  on  to  the  end.  .  .  .  The 
Litany  need  not  be  literal.  I  suppose  you  are  not  a  rabid  nonconform* 
ist,  or  else  I  would  not  venture  to  ask  this.     .    •    ." 

By  the  time  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi, 
Livingstone  was  suffering  from  a  severe  attack  of  diarrhoea. 
On  the  16th  of  May,  being  Sunday,  while  still  suffering, 
he  deemed  it  a  work  of  necessity,  in  order  to  get  as  soon 
as  possible  out  of  the  fever-breeding  region  of  mangrove 
swamps  where  they  had  anchored,  that  they  should  at 
once  remove  the  sections  of  the  "Ma-Robert"  from  the 


THE  ZAMBESI.  267 

"Pearl";  accordingly,  with  the  exception  of  the  time 
occupied  in  the  usual  prayers,  that  day  was  spent  in  labor. 
His  constant  regard  for  the  day  of  rest  and  great  unwil- 
lingness to  engage  in  labor  then,  is  the  best  proof  that  on 
this  occasion  the  necessity  for  working  was  to  his  mind 
absolutely  irresistible.  He  had  found  that  active  exercise 
every  day  was  one  of  the  best  preventives  of  fever;  cer- 
tainly it  is  very  remarkable  how  thoroughly  the  men  of 
the  Expedition  escaped  it  at  this  time.  In  his  Journal  he 
says:  "After  the  experience  gained  by  Dr.  M'William, 
and  communicated  to  the  world  in  his  admirable  Medical 
History  of  the  Niger  Expedition,  I  should  have  considered 
myself  personally  guilty  had  any  of  the  crew  of  the  *  PearP 
or  of  the  Expedition  been  cut  off  through  delay  in  the 
mangrove  swamps."  Afterward,  when  Mrs.  Livingstone 
died  during  a  long  but  unavoidable  delay  at  Shupanga,  a 
little  farther  up,  he  was  more  than  ever  convinced  that  he 
had  acted  rightly.  But  some  of  his  friends  were  troubled, 
and  many  reflections  were  thrown  on  him,  especially  by 
those  who  bore  him  no  good-will. 

The  first  important  fact  in  the  history  of  the  Expedi- 
tion was  the  discovery  of  the  advantages  of  the  Kongone 
entrance  of  the  Zambesi,  the  best  of  all  the  months  of  the 
river  for  navigation.  Soon  after  a  site  was  fixed  on  as  a 
depot,  and  while  the  luggage  and  stores  were  being  landed 
at  it,  there  occurred  an  unfortunate  collision  with  the 
naval  officer,  who  tendered  his  resignation.  At  first 
Livingstone  declined  to  accept  of  it,  but  on  its  being  ten- 
dered a  second  time  he  allowed  the  officer  to  go.  It  vexed 
him  to  the  last  degree  to  have  this  difference  so  early,  nor 
did  he  part  with  the  officer  without  much  forbearance  and 
anxiety  to  ward  off  the  breach.  In  his  despatches  to 
Government  the  whole  circumstances  were  fully  detailed. 
Letters  to  Mr.  Maclear  and  other  private  friends  give  a 
still  more  detailed  narrative.  In  a  few  quarters  blame 
was  cast  upon  him,  and  in  the  Cape  newspapers  the  affair 


268  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

was  much  commented  on.  In  due  time  there  came  a 
reply  from  Lord  Malmesbury,  then  Foreign  Secretary, 
dated  26th  April,  1859,  to  the  effect  that  after  full  inquiry 
by  himself,  and  after  consulting  with  the  Admiralty,  his 
opinion  was  that  the  officer  had  failed  to  clear  himself, 
and  that  Dr.  Livingstone's  proceedings  were  fully  ap- 
proved. Livingstone  had  received  authority  to  stop  the 
pay  of  any  member  of  the  Expedition  that  should  prove 
unsatisfactory;  this,  of  course,  subjected  his  conduct  to  the 
severer  criticism. 

When  the  officer  left,  Livingstone  calmly  took  his  place, 
adding  the  charge  of  the  ship  to  his  other  duties.  This 
step  would  appear  alike  rash  and  presumptuous,  did  we 
not  know  that  he  never  undertook  any  work  without  full 
deliberation,  and  did  we  not  remember  that  in  the  course 
of  three  sea-voyages  which  he  had  performed  he  had  had 
opportunities  of  seeing  how  a  ship  was  managed — oppor- 
tunities of  which,  no  doubt,  with  his  great  activity  of 
mind,  he  had  availed  himself  most  thoroughly.  The 
facility  with  which  he  could  assume  a  new  function,  and 
do  its  duties  as  if  he  had  been  accustomed  to  it  all  his 
life,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  things  about  him. 
His  chief  regret  in  taking  the  new  burden  was,  that  it 
would  limit  his  intercourse  with  the  natives,  and  prevent 
him  from  doing  as  much  missionary  work  as  he  desired. 
Writing  soon  after  to  Miss  Whately,  of  Dublin,  he  says : 
"It  was  imagined  we  could  not  help  ourselves,  but  I  took 
the  task  of  navigating  on  myself,  and  have  conducted  the 
steamer  over  1600  miles,  though  as  far  as  my  likings  go,  I 
would  as  soon  drive  a  cab  in  November  fo2:s  in  London  as 
be  '  skipper'  in  this  hot  sun ;  but  I  shall  go  through  with 
it  as  a  duty."  To  his  friend  Mr.  Young  he  makes  humor- 
ous reference  to  his  awkwardness  in  nautical  language: 
"My  great  difficulty  is  calling  out  *  starboard'  when  I 
mean  *  port,'  and  feeling  crusty  when  I  see  the  helmsman 
putting  the  helm  the  wrong  wa3^" 


THE  ZAMBESI,  269 

Another  difficulty  arose  from  the  state  of  the  country 
north  of  the  Zambesi,  in  consequence  of  the  natives 
having  rebelled  against  the  Portuguese  and  being  in  a 
state  of  war.  Livingstone  was  cautioned  that  he  would  be 
attacked  if  he  ventured  to  penetrate  into  the  country.  He 
resolved  to  keep  out  of  the  quarrel,  but  to  push  on  in  spite 
of  it.  At  one  time  his  party,  being  mistaken  for  Portu- 
guese, were  on  the  point  of  being  fired  on,  but  on  Living- 
stone shouting  out  that  they  were  English  the  natives  let 
them  alone.  On  reaching  Tette  he  found  his  old  followers 
in  ecstasies  at  seeing  him;  the  Portuguese  Government 
had  done  nothing  for  them,  but  Major  Sicard,  the  excellent 
Governor  of  Tette,  had  helped  them  to  find  employment 
and  maintain  themselves.  Thirty  had  died  of  small-pox ; 
six  had  been  killed  by  an  unfriendly  chief.  When  the 
survivors  saw  Dr.  Livingstone,  they  said:  "The  Tette 
people  often  taunted  us  by  saying,  *  Your  Englishman  will 
never  return;'  bat  we  trusted  you,  and  now  we  shall 
sleep."'  It  gave  Livingstone  a  new  hold  on  them  and  on 
the  natives  generally,  that  he  had  proved  true  to  his 
promise,  and  had  come  back  as  he  had  said.  As  the  men 
had  found  ways  of  living  at  Tette,  Livingstone  was  not 
obliged  to  take  them  to  their  home  immediately. 

One  of  his  first  endeavors  after  reaching  Tette  was  to 
ascertain  how  far  the  navigation  of.  the  Zambesi  was 
impeded  by  the  rapids  at  Kebrabasa,  between  twenty  and 
thirty  miles  above  Tette,  which  he  had  heard  of  but  not 
seen  on  his  journey  from  Linyanti  to  Quilimane.  The 
distance  was  short  and  the  enterprise  apparently  easy,  but 
in  reality  it  presented  such  difficulties  as  only  his  dogged 
perseverance  could  have  overcome.  After  he  had  been 
twice  at  the  rapids,  and  when  he  believed  he  had  seen  the 
whole,  he  accidentally  learned,  after  a  day's  march  on  the 
way  home,  that  there  was  another  rapid  which  he  had  not 
yet  seen.  Determined  to  see  all,  he  returned,  with  Dr. 
Kirk  and  four  Makololo,  and  it  was  on  this  occasion  that 


270  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

his  followers,  showing  the  blisters  on  their  feet  burst  by 
the  hot  rocks,  told  him,  when  he  urged  them  to  make 
another  effort,  that  hitherto  they  had  always  believed  he 
had  a  heart,  but  now  they  saw  he  had  none,  and  wondered 
if  he  were  mad.  Leaving  them,  he  and  Dr.  Kirk  pushed 
on  alone ;  but  their  boots  and  clothes  were  destroyed ;  in 
three  hours  they  made  but  a  mile.  Next  day,  however, 
they  gained  their  point  and  saw  the  rapid.  It  was  plain 
to  Dr.  Livingstone  that  had  he  taken  this  route  in  1856, 
instead  of  through  the  level  Shidina  country,  he  must 
have  perished.  The  party  were  of  opinion  that  when  the 
river  was  in  full  flood  the  rapids  might  be  navigated,  and 
this  opinion  was  confirmed  on  a  subsequent  visit  paid  by 
Mr.  Charles  Livingstone  and  Mr.  Baines  during  the  rainy 
season.  But  the  "  Ma-Robert"  with  its  single  engine  had 
not  power  to  make  way.  It  was  resolved  to  apply  to  Her 
Majesty's  Government  for  a  more  suitable  vessel  to  carry 
them  up  the  country,  stores  and  all.  Until  the  answer 
should  come  to  this  application.  Dr.  Livingstone  could  not 
return  with  his  Makololo  to  their  own  country. 

While  making  this  application,  he  was  preparing 
another  string  for  his  bow.  He  wrote  to  his  friend  Mr. 
James  Young  that  if  Government  refused  he  would  get 
a  vessel  at  his  own  expense,  and  in  a  succession  of  letters 
authorized  him  to  spend  £2000  of  his  own  money  in  the 
purchase  of  a  suitable  ship.  Eventually,  both  suggestions 
were  carried  into  effect.  The  Government  gave  the 
"Pioneer"  for  the  navigation  of  the  Zambesi  and  lower 
Shire ;  Livingstone  procured  the  "  Lady  Nyassa"  for  the 
Lake  (where,  however,  she  never  floated),  but  the  cost  was 
more  than  £6000 — the  greater  part,  indeed,  of  the  profits 
of  his  book. 

The  "  Ma-Robert,"  which  had  promised  so  well  at  first, 
now  turned  out  a  great  disappointment.  Her  consump- 
tion of  fuel  was  enormous ;  her  furnace  had  to  be  lighted 
hours  before  the  steam  was  serviceable;  she  snorted  so 


FIRST  EXPLORATIONS  OF  TEE  SHIRK       271 

iiorribly  that  they  called  her  "  The  Asthmatic,"  and  after 
all  she  made  so  little  progress  that  canoes  could  easily 
pass  her.  Having  taken  much  interest  in  the  purchase 
of  the  vessel,  and  thought  he  was  getting  a  great  bargain 
because  its  owner  professed  to  do  so  much  through  "  love 
of  the  cause,"  Livingstone  was  greatly  mortified  when  he 
found  he  had  got  an  inferior  and  unworthy  article ;  and 
many  a  joke  he  made,  as  well  as  remarks  of  a  more  seriou?5 
kind,  in  connection  with  the  manner  which  the  "  eminent 
shipbuilder"  had  taken  to  show  his  love. 

Eearly  in  1859  the  exploration  of  the  Shire  was  begun 
— a  river  hitherto  absolutely  unknown.  The  country 
around  was  rich  and  fertile,  the  natives  not  unfriendly, 
but  suspicious.  They  had  probably  never  been  visited 
before  but  by  man-stealers,  and  had  never  seen  Europeans. 
The  Shire  Valley  was  inhabited  by  the  Manganja,  a  very 
warlike  race.  Some  days'  journey  above  the  junction  with 
the  Zambesi,  where  the  Shire  issues  from  the  mountains, 
the  progress  of  the  party  was  stopped  by  rapids,  to  which 
they  gave  the  name  of  the  "Murchison  Cataracts."  It 
seemed  in  vain  to  penetrate  among  the  people  at  that  time 
without  supplies,  considering  how  suspicious  they  were. 
Crowds  went  along  the  banks  watching  them  by  day; 
they  had  guards  over  them  all  night,  and  these  were 
always  ready  with  their  bows  and  poisoned  arrows. 
Nevertheless,  some  progress  was  made  in  civilizing  them, 
and  at  a  future  time  it  was  hoped  that  further  exploration 
might  take  place. 

Some  passages  in  Livingstone's  private  Journal  give  us 
a  glimpse  of  the  more  serious  thoughts  that  were  passing 
through  his  mind  at  this  time : 

**March  3,  1859. — If  we  dedicate  ourselves  to  God  unreservedly  He 
will  make  use  of  whatever  peculiarities  of  constitution  He  has  imparted 
for  his  own  glory,  and  He  will  in  answer  to  prayer  give  wisdom  to  guide. 
He  will  so  guide  as  to  make  useful.  0  how  far  am  I  from  that  hearty  de- 
votion to  God  I  read  of  in  others  1  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  me  a  sinner!" 


272  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

"  March  6th. — A  woman  left  Tette  yesterday  with  a  eargo  of  slaves 
(20  men  and  40  women)  in  irons  to  sell  to  St.  Cruz  [a  trader],  for  expor- 
tation at  Bourbon.  Francisco  at  Shupanga  is  the  great  receiver  for 
Cruz.     This  is  carnival,  and  it  is  observed  chiefly  as  a  drinking  feast." 

^'•March  6ih. — Teaching  Makololo  Lord's  Prayer  and  Creed.  Prayers 
as  usual  at  9J  a.m.  When  employed  in  active  travel,  my  mind  becomes 
inactive,  and  the  heart  cold  and  dead,  but  after  remaining  some  time 
quiet,  the  heart  revives  and  I  become  more  spiritually-minded.  This  is 
a  mercy  which  I  have  experienced  before,  and  when  I  see  a  matter  to 
be  duty  I  go  on  regardless  of  my  feelings.  I  do  trust  that  the  Lord  is 
with  me,  though  the  mind  is  engaged  in  other  matters  than  the  spirit- 
ual. I  want  my  whole  life  to  be  out  and  out  for  the  Divine  glory,  and 
my  earnest  prayer  is  that  God  may  accept  what  his  own  Spirit  must 
have  implanted — the  desire  to  glorify  Him.  I  have  been  more  than 
usually  drawn  out  in  earnest  prayer  of  late — for  the  Expedition — for 

my  family — the  fear  lest 's  misrepresentation  may  injure  the  cause 

of  Christ — the  hope  that  I  may  be  permitted  to  open  this  dark  land  to 
the  blessed  gospel.  I  have  cast  all  before  my  G-od.  Good  Lord,  have 
mercy  upon  me.  Leave  me  not,  nor  forsake  me.  He  has  guided  well 
in  time  past.  I  commit  my  way  to  Him  for  the  future.  All  I  have 
received  has  come  from  Him.  Will  He  be  pleased  in  mercy  to  use  me 
for  his  glory?  I  have  prayed  for  this,  and  Jesus  himself  said,  *  Ask, 
and  ye  shall  receive,'  and  a  host  of  statements  to  the  same  effect. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  trifling  frivolousness  in  not  trusting  in  God. 
Not  trusting  in  Him  who  is  truth  itself,  faithfulness,  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  for  ever!  It  is  presumption  not  to  trust  in  Him 
implicitly,  and  yet  this  heart  is  sometimes  fearfully  guilty  of  distrust. 
I  am  ashamed  to  think  of  it.  Ay ;  but  He  must  put  the  trusting, 
loving,  childlike  spirit  in  by  his  grace.  0  Lord,  I  am  Thine,  truly  I 
am  Thine — take  me — do  what  seemeth  good  in  Thy  sight  with  me, 
and  give  me  complete  resignation  to  Thy  will  in  all  things." 

Two  months  later  (May,  1859),  a  second  ascent  of  the 
Shire  was  performed,  and  friendly  relations  were  estab- 
lished with  a  clever  chief  named  Chibisa,  "a  jolly  person, 
who  laughs  easily — which  is  always  a  good  sign."  Chibisa 
believed  firmly  in  two  things — the  divine  right  of  kings, 
and  the  impossibility  that  Chibisa  should  ever  be  in  the 
wrong.  He  told  them  that  his  father  had  imparted  an 
influence  to  him,  which  had  come  in  by  his  head,  whereby 
every  person  that  had  heard  him  speak  respected  him 
greatly.     Livingstone  evidently  made  a  great  impression 


FIRST  EXPLORATIONS  OF  THE  SHIR  A        273 

on  Chibisa ;  like  other  chiefs,  he  began  to  fall  under  th 
spell  of  his  influence. 

Making  a  detour  to  the  east,  the  travelers  now  discovered 
Lake  Shirwa,  "  a  magnificent  inland  lake."  This  lake  was 
absolutely  unknown  to  the  Portuguese,  who,  indeed,  were 
never  allowed  by  the  natives  to  enter  the  Shire.  Living- 
stone had  often  to  explain  that  he  and  his  party  were  not 
Portuguese  but  British.  After  discovering  this  lake,  the 
party  returned  to  the  ship,  and  then  sailed  to  the  Kongone 
harbor,  in  hopes  of  meeting  a  man-of-war  and  obtaining 
provisions.     In  this,  however,  they  were  disappointed. 

Some  idea  of  the  voluminous  correspondence  carried  on 
by  Dr.  Livingstone  may  be  formed  from  the  following 
enumeration  of  the  friends  to  whom  he  addressed  letters 
in  May  of  this  year :  Lords  Clarendon  and  Palmerston, 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  Miss  Burdett  Coutts,  Mr.  Venn,  Lord 
Kinnaird,  Mr.  James  Wilson,  Mr.  Oswell,  Colonel  Steele, 
Dr.  Newton  of  Philadelphia,  his  brother  John  in  Canada, 
J.  B.  and  C.  Braithwaite,  Dr.  Andrew  Smith,  Admiral  F. 
Grey,  Sir  R.  Murchison,  Captain  Washington,  Mr.  Maclear, 
Professor  Owen,  Major  Vardon,  Mrs.  Livingstone,  Viscount 
Goderich. 

Here  is  the  account  he  gave  of  his  proceedings  to  his 
little  daughter  Agnes : 

"  River  Shire,  1st  June,  1859. — We  have  been  down  to  the  month  of  the 
river  Zambesi  in  expectation  of  meeting  a  man-of-war  with  salt  pro- 
visions, but,  none  appearing  on  the  day  appointed,  we  conclude  that  the 
Admiral  has  not  received  my  letters  in  time  to  send  her.  "We  have  no 
post-office  here,  so  we  buried  a  bottle  containing  a  letter  on  an  island  in 
the  entrance  to  Kongone  harbor.  This  we  told  the  Admiral  we  should 
do  in  case  of  not  meeting  the  cruiser,  and  whoever  comes  will  search 
for  our  bottle  and  see  another  appointment  for  30th  of  July.  This  goes 
with  despatches  by  way  of  Quilimane,  and  I  hope  some  day  to  get  from 
you  a  letter  by  the  same  route.  We  have  got  no  news  from  home  since 
we  left  Liverpool,  and  we  long  now  to  hear  how  all  goes  on  in  Europe 
and  in  India.  I  am  now  on  my  way  to  Tette,  but  we  ran  up  the  Shir6 
Bome  forty  miles  to  buy  rice  for  our  company.  Uncle  Charles  is  there. 
He  has  had  some  fever,  but  is  better.     We  left  him  there  about  two 


274  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

months  ago,  and  Dr.  Kirk  and  I,  with  some  fifteen  Makololo,  ascended 
this  river  one  hundred  miles  in  the  '  Ma-Robert,'  then  left  the  vessel 
and  proceeded  beyond  that  on  foot  till  we  had  discovered  a  magnificent 
lake  called  Shirwa  (pronounced  Shurwah).  It  was  very  grand,  for  we 
could  not  see  the  end  of  it,  though  some  way  up  a  mountain;  and  all 
around  it  are  mountains  much  higher  than  any  you  see  in  Scotland. 
One  mountain  stands  in  the  lake,  and  people  live  on  it.  Another,  called 
Zomba,  is  more  than  six  thousand  feet  high,  and  people  live  on  it  too, 
for  we  could  see  their  gardens  on  its  top,  which  is  larger  than  from 
Glasgow  to  Hamilton,  or  about  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  miles.  The 
country  is  quite  a  Highland  region,  and  many  people  live  in  it.  Most 
of  them  were  afraid  of  us.  The  women  ran  into  their  huts  and  shut 
the  doors.  The  children  screamed  in  terror,  and  even  the  hens  would 
fly  away  and  leave  their  chickens.  I  suppose  you  would  be  frightened, 
too,  if  you  saw  strange  creatures,  say  a  lot  of  Trundlemen,  like  those  on 
*he  Isle  of  Man  pennies,  come  whirling  up  the  street.  No  one  was  im- 
pudent to  us  except  some  slave-traders,  but  they  became  civil  as  soon  as 
they  learned  we  were  English  and  not  Portuguese.  We  saw  the  sticks 
they  employ  for  training  any  one  whom  they  have  just  bought.     One  is 

is  about  eight  feet  long,  the 
gW^wwij^)^  head,  or  neck  rather,  is  put 

I       ^■^'H^ I'll  m ijw "I  w ' ' ii^...ii![!l!'ajJSM^^jW|  into   the   space    between  the 
fcPMiP-agg^X^  dotted   lines   and   shaft,   and 

^  another  slave  carries  the  end. 

When  they  are  considered  tame  they  are  allowed  to  go  in  chains. 

"  I  am  working  in  the  hope  that  in  the  course  of  time  this  horrid 
system  may  cease.  All  the  country  we  traveled  through  is  capable  of 
growing  cotton  and  sugar,  and  the  people  now  cultivate  a  good  deal. 
They  would  grow  much  more  if  they  could  only  sell  it.  At  present  we 
in  England  are  the  mainstay  of  slavery  in  America  and  elsewhere  by 
buying  slave-grown  produce.  Here  there  are  hundreds  of  miles  of  land 
lying  waste,  and  so  rich  that  the  grass  towers  far  over  one's  head  in 
walking.  You  cannot  see  where  the  narrow  paths  end,  the  grass  is  so 
tall  and  overhangs  them  so.  If  our  countrymen  were  here  they  would 
Boon  render  slave-buying  unprofitable.  Perhaps  God  may  honor  us 
to  open  up  the  way  for  this.  My  heart  is  sore  when  I  think  of  so  many 
of  our  countrymen  in  poverty  and  misery,  while  they  might  be  doing  so 
much  good  to  themselves  and  others  where  our  Heavenly  Father  has 
BO  abundantly  provided  fruitful  hills  and  fertile  valleys.  If  our  people 
were  out  here  they  would  not  need  to  cultivate  little  snatches  by  the  side 
of  railways  as  they  do.  But  all  is  in  the  hands  of  the  all-wise  Father 
We  must  trust  that  He  will  bring  all  out  right  at  last. 

'<  My  dear  Agnes,  you  must  take  Him  to  be  your  Father  and  Guide. 


FinST  EXPLORATIONS  OF  THE  SHIRlt.       275 

Tell  Him  all  that  is  in  your  heart,  and  make  Him  your  confidant.  His 
car  is  ever  open,  and  He  despiseth  not  the  humblest  sigh.  He  ia  your 
best  friend  and  loves  at  all  times.  It  is  not  enough  to  be  a  servant,  yon 
must  be  a  friend  of  Jesus.  Love  Him  and  surrender  your  entire  being 
to  Him.  The  more  you  trust  Him,  casting  all  your  care  upon  Him,  the 
more  He  is  pleased,  and  He  will  so  guide  you  that  your  life  will  be  for 
his  own  glory.  The  Lord  be  with  you.  My  kind  love  to  Grandma 
and  to  all  your  friends.  I  hope  your  eyes  are  better,  and  that  you  arc 
able  to  read  books  for  yourself.  Tell  Tom  that  we  caught  a  young 
elephant  in  coming  down  the  Shire,  about  the  size  of  the  largest  dog  he 
ever  saw,  but  one  of  the  Makololo,  in  a  state  of  excitement,  cut  its 
trunk,  so  that  it  bled  very  much,  and  died  in  two  days.  Had  it  lived 
we  should  have  sent  it  to  the  Queen,  as  no  African  elephant  was  ever 
seen  in  England.     No  news  from  mamma  and  Oswell. 

Another  evidence  of  the  place  of  his  children  in  his 
thoughts  is  found  in  the  following  lines  in  his  Journal : 

^'  20th  June,  1859. — I  cannot  and  will  not  attribute  any  of  the  public 
attention  which  has  been  awakened  to  my  own  wisdom  or  ability.  The 
great  Power  being  my  Helper,  I  shall  always  say  that  my  success  is  all 
owing  to  his  favor.  I  have  been  the  channel  of  the  Divine  Power,  and 
I  pray  that  his  gracious  influence  may  penetrate  me  so  that  all  may 
turn  to  the  advancement  of  his  gracious  reign  in  this  fallen  world. 

"  Oh,  may  the  mild  influence  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  enter  the  bosoms 
of  my  children,  penetrate  their  souls,  and  diffuse  through  their  whole 
natures  the  everlasting  love  of  Grod  in  Jesus  Christ  I  Holy,  gracious^ 
almighty  Power,  I  hide  myself  in  Thee  through  Thy  almighty  Son. 
Take  my  children  under  Thy  care.  Purify  them  and  fit  them  for  Thy 
Bervice.  Let  the  beams  of  the  Sun  of  Bighteousness  produce  spring, 
summer,  and  harvest  in  them  for  Thee." 

The  short  trip  from  Kongone  to  Tette  and  back  was 
marked  by  some  changes  in  the  composition  of  the  party. 
The  Kroomen  being  found  to  be  useless,  were  shipped  on 
board  a  man-of-war.  The  services  of  two  members  of  the 
Expedition  were  also  dispensed  with,  as  they  were  not 
found  to  be  promoting  its  ends.  Livingstone  would  not 
pay  the  public  money  to  men  who,  he  believed,  were  not 
thoroughly  earning  it.  To  these  troubles  was  added  the 
constantly  increasing  mortification  arising  from  the  state 
of  the  ship. 


276  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

It  has  sometimes  been  represented,  in  view  of  such  facts 
as  have  just  been  recorded,  that  Livingstone  was  imperious 
and  despotic  in  the  management  of  other  men,  otherwise 
he  and  his  comrades  would  have  got  on  better  together. 
The  accusation,  even  at  first  sight,  has  an  air  of  improb- 
ability, for  Livingstone's  nature  was  most  kindly,  and  it 
was  the  aim  of  his  life  to  increase  enjoyment.  In  explan- 
ation of  the  friction  on  board  his  ship  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  his  party  were  a  sort  of  scratch  crew 
brought  together  without  previous  acquaintance  or  knowl- 
edge of  each  other's  ways;  that  the  heat  and  the  mosqui- 
toes, the  delays,  the  stoppages  on  sandbanks,  the  perpetual 
struggle  for  fuel,^  the  monotony  of  existence,  with  so  little 
to  break  it,  and  the  irritating  influence  of  the  climate,  did 
not  tend  to  smooth  their  tempers  or  increase  the  amenities 
of  life.  The  malarious  climate  had  a  most  disturbing 
effect.  No  one,  it  is  said,  who  has  not  experienced  it,  could 
imagine  the  sensation  of  misery  connected  with  the 
feverish  attacks  so  common  in  the  low  districts.  And 
Livingstone  had  difficulties  in  managing  his  countrymen 
he  had  not  in  managing  the  natives.  He  was  so  conscien- 
tious, so  deeply  in  earnest,  so  hard  a  worker  himself,  that 
he  could  endure  nothing  that  seemed  like  playing  or 
trifling  with  duty.  Sometimes,  too,  things  were  harshly 
represented  to  him,  on  which  a  milder  construction  might 
have  been  put.  One  of  those  with  whom  he  parted  at  this 
time  afterward  rejoined  the  Expedition,  his  pay  being  re- 
stored on  Livingstone's  intercession.  Those  who  continued 
to  enjoy  his  friendship  were  never  weary  of  speaking  of 
his  delightful  qualities  as  a  companion  in  travel,  and  the 
warm  sunshine  which  he  had  the  knack  of  spreading 
around. 

A  third  trip  up  the  Shire  was  made  in  August,  and  on 
the   16th   of    September    Lake    Nyassa    was    discovered. 

*  This  was  incredible.     Livingstone  wrote  to  his  friend  Jos6  Nunes  that  it 
took  all  hands  a  day  and  a  half  to  cut  one  day's  fuel. 


FIRST  EXPLORATIONS  OF  THE  SHIR  A       27T 

Livingstone  had  no  doubt  that  he  and  his  party  were 
the  discoverers;  Dr.  Roscher,  on  whose  behalf  a  claim 
was  subsequently  made,  was  two  months  later,  and  his 
unfortunate  murder  by  the  natives  made  it  doubtful  at 
what  point  he  reached  the  lake.  The  discovery  of  Lake 
Nyassa,  as  well  as  Lake  Shirwa,  was  of  immense  importance, 
because  they  were  both  parallel  to  the  ocean,  and  the  whole 
traffic  of  the  regions  beyond  must  pass  by  this  line.  The 
configuration  of  the  Shire  Valley,  too,  was  lavorable  to 
colonization.  The  valley  occupied  three  different  levels. 
First  there  was  a  plain  on  the  level  of  the  river,  like  that 
of  the  Nile,  close  and  hot.  Rising  above  this  to  the  east 
there  was  another  plain,  2000  feet  high,  three  or  four  miles 
broad,  salubrious  and  pleasant.  Lastly,  there  was  a  third 
plain  3000  feet  above  the  second,  positively  cold.  To  find 
such  varieties  of  climate  within  a  few  miles  of  each  other 
was  most  interesting. 

In  other  respects  the  region  opened  up  was  remarkable. 
There  was  a  great  amount  of  fertile  land,  and  the  products 
were  almost  endless.  The  people  were  industrious ;  in  the 
upper  Shire,  notwithstanding  a  great  love  of  beer,  they 
lived  usually  to  a  great  age.  Cleanliness  was  not  a  uni- 
versal virtue;  the  only  way  in  which  the  Expedition  could 
get  rid  of  a  troublesome  follower  was  by  threatening  to 
wash  him.  The  most  disagreeable  thing  in  the  appear- 
ance of  the  women  was  their  lip-ornament,  consisting  of  a 
ring  of  ivory  or  tin,  either  hollow  or  made  into  a  cup, 
inserted  in  the  upper  lip^  Dr.  Livingstone  used  to  give 
full  particulars  of  this  fearful  practice,  having  the  idea 
that  the  taste  of  ladies  at  home  in  dress  and  ornament 
was  not  free  from  similar  absurdity;  or,  as  he  wrote  at 
this  time  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  Vienna,  in 
acknowledging  the  honor  of  being  made  a  corresponding 
member,  "because  our  own  ladies,  who  show  so  much 
virtuous  perseverance  with  their  waists,  may  wish  to  try 
lip-ornament  too."     In  regard  to  the  other  sex,  he  in« 

24 


278  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

formed  the  same  Society :  "  I  could  see  nothing  encourag- 
ing for  the  gentlemen  who  are  anxious  to  prove  that  we 
are  all  descended  from  a  race  that  wore  tails." 

In  the  highland  regions  of  the  Shire  Valley,  the  party 
were  distinctly  conscious  of  an  increase  of  energy,  from 
the  more  bracing  climate.  Dr.  Livingstone  was  thor- 
oughly convinced  that  these  highlands  of  the  Shire  Valley 
were  the  proper  locality  for  commercial  and  missionary 
stations.  Thus  one  great  object  of  the  Expedition  was 
accomplished.  In  another  point  of  view,  this  locality 
would  be  highly  serviceable  for  stations.  It  was  the  great 
pathway  for  conveying  slaves  from  the  north  and  north- 
west to  Zanzibar.  Of  this  he  had  only  too  clear  evidence 
in  the  gangs  of  slaves  whom  he  saw  marched  along  from 
time  to  time,  and  whom  he  would  have  been  most  eager 
to  release  had  he  known  of  any  way  of  preventing  them 
from  falling  again  into  the  hands  of  the  slave-sellers.  In 
this  region  Englishmen  "might  enjoy  good  health,  and 
also  be  of  signal  benefit,  by  leading  the  multitude  of 
industrious  inhabitants  to  cultivate  cotton,  maize,  sugar, 
and  other  valuable  produce,  to  exchange  for  goods  of 
European  manufacture,  at  the  same  time  teaching  them, 
by  precept  and  example,  the  great  truths  of  our  holy 
religion."  Water-carriage  existed  all  the  way  from  Eng- 
land, with  the  exception  of  the  Murchison  Cataracts,  along 
which  a  road  of  forty  miles  might  easily  be  made.  A 
small  steamer  on  the  lake  would  do  more  good  in  sup- 
pressing the  slave-trade  than  half-a-dozen  men-of-war  in 
the  ocean.  If  the  Zambesi  could  be  opened  to  commerce 
the  bright  vision  of  the  last  ten  years  would  be  realized, 
and  the  Shire  Valley  and  banks  of  the  Nyassa  transformed 
into  the  garden  of  the  Lord. 

From  the  very  first  Livingstone  saw  the  importance  of 
the  Shire  Valley  and  Lake  Nyassa  as  the  key  to  Central 
Africa.  Ever  since,  it  has  become  more  and  more  evident 
that  his  surmise  was  correct.    To  make  the  occupation 


FIRST  EXPLORATIONS  OF  THE  SHIRt.       279 

thoroughly  effective,  he  thought  much  of  the  desirableness 
of  a  British  colony,  and  was  prepared  to  expend  a  great 
part  of  the  remainder  of  his  private  means  to  carry  it  into 
effect.     On  August  4th,  he  says  in  his  Journal : 

"  I  have  a  very  strong  desire  to  commence  a  system  of  coloniBation 
of  the  honest  poor;  I  would  give  £2000  or  £3000  for  the  purpoic 
Intend  to  write  my  friend  Young  about  it,  and  authorize  him  to  draw 
if  the  project  seems  feasible.  The  Lord  remember  my  desire,  sanctify 
my  motives,  and  purify  all  my  desires.     Wrote  him. 

"Colonization  from  a  country  such  as  ours  ought  to  be  one  of  hope, 
and  not  of  despair.  It  ought  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  last  and 
worst  shift  that  a  family  can  come  to,  but  the  performance  of  an 
imperative  duty  to  our  blood,  our  country,  our  religion,  and  to  human- 
kind. As  soon  as  children  begin  to  be  felt  an  incumbrance,  and  what 
was  properly  in  ancient  times  Old  Testament  blessings  are  no  longer 
welcomed,  parents  ought  to  provide  for  removal  to  parts  of  this  wide 
world  where  every  accession  is  an  addition  of  strength,  and  every 
member  of  the  household  feels  in  his  inmost  heart,  Uhe  more  the 
merrier.'  It  is  a  monstrous  evil  that  all  our  healthy,  handy,  blooming 
daughters  of  England  have  not  a  fair  chance  at  least  to  become  the 
centres  of  domestic  affections.  The  state  of  society,  which  precludes  so 
many  of  them  from  occupying  the  position  which  Englishwomen  are  so 
well  calculated  to  adorn,  gives  rise  to  enormous  evils  in  the  opposite 
sex, — evils  and  wrongs  which  we  dare  not  even  name, — and  national 
colonization  is  almost  the  only  remedy.  Englishwomen  are,  in  general, 
the  most  beautiful  in  the  world,  and  yet  our  national  emigration  has 
often,  by  selecting  the  female  emigrants  from  workhouses,  sent  forth 
the  ugliest  huzzies  in  creation  to  be  the  mothers — the  model  mothers— 
of  new  empires.  Here,  as  in  other  cases,  State  necessities  have  led  to 
the  ill-formed  and  ill-informed  being  preferred  to  the  well-formed  and 
well-inclined  honest  poor,  as  if  the  worst  as  well  as  better  qualities  of 
mankind  did  not  often  run  in  the  blood." 

The  idea  of  the  colony  quite  fascinated  Livingstone,  and 
we  find  him  writing  on  it  fully  to  three  of  his  most 
confidential  business  friends — Mr.  Maclear,  Mr.  Young, 
and  Sir  Roderick  Murchison.  In  all  Livingstone's  corre- 
spondence we  find  the  tone  of  his  letters  modified  by  the 
character  of  his  correspondents.  While  to  Mr.  Young  and 
Sir  EodeHck  he  is  somewhat  cautious  on  the  subject  of 


280  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

the  colony,  knowing  the  keen  practical  eye  they  would 
direct  on  the  proposal,  to  Mr.  Maclear  he  is  more  gushing. 
He  writes  to  him : 

"  I  feel  such  a  gush  of  emotion  on  thinking  of  the  great  work  before 
lis  that  I  must  unburden  my  mind.  I  am  becoming  every  day  more 
decidedly  convinced  that  English  colonization  is  an  essential  ingredient 
for  our  large  success.  ...  In  this  new  region  of  Highlands  no  end 
of  good  could  be  effected  in  developing  the  trade  in  cotton  and  in  dis- 
couraging that  in  slaves.  .  .  .  You  know  how  I  have  been  led  on 
from  one  step  to  another  by  the  overruling  Providence  of  the  great 
Parent,  as  I  believe,  in  order  to  a  great  good  for  Africa.  '  Commit  thy 
way  unto  the  Lord,  trust  also  in  Him,  and  He  will  bring  it  to  pass.' 
I  have  tried  to  do  this,  and  now  see  the  prospect  in  front  spreading  out 
grandly.  .  .  .  But  how  is  the  land  so  promising  to  be  occupied? 
.  .  .  How  many  of  our  home  poor  are  fighting  hard  to  keep  body 
and  soul  together  1  My  heart  yearns  over  our  own  poor  when  I  see  so 
much  of  God's  fair  earth  unoccupied.  Here  it  is  really  so ;  for  the 
people  have  only  a  few  sheep  and  goats,  and  no  cattle.  I  wonder  why 
we  cannot  have  the  old  monastery  system  without  the  celibacy.  In  no 
other  part  where  I  have  been  does  the  prospect  of  self-support  seem  so 
inviting,  and  promising  so  much  influence.  Most  of  what  is  dou-*  for 
the  poor  has  especial  reference  to  the  blackguard  poor." 

In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Young  he  expressed  his  conviction 
that  a  great  desideratum  in  mission  agency  was  mission- 
ary emigration  by  honest  Christian  poor  to  give  living 
examples  of  Christian  life  that  would  insure  permanency 
to  the  gospel  once  planted.  He  had  always  had  a  warm 
side  to  the  English  and  Scottish  poor — his  own  order, 
indeed.  If  twenty  or  thirty  families  would  come  out  as 
an  experiment,  he  was  ready  to  give  £2000  without  saying 
from  whom.  He  bids  Mr.  Young  speak  about  the  plan  to 
Thom  of  Chorley,  Turner  of  Manchester,  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury, and  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  "Now,  my  friend,"  he 
adds,  "do  your  best,  and  God's  blessing  be  with  you. 
Much  is  done  for  the  blackguard  poor.  Let  us  remember 
our  own  class,  and  do  good  while  we  have  opportunity. 
I  hereby  authorize  you  to  act  in  my  behalf,  and  do  what- 
ever is  to  be  done  without  hesitancy." 


FIRST  EXPLORATIONS  OF  THE  SHIRR       281 

These  letters,  and  their  references  to  the  honest  poor, 
are  characteristic.  We  have  seen  that  among  Dr.  Living- 
stone's forefathers  and  connections  were  some  very  noble 
specimens  of  the  honest  poor.  It  touched  him  to  think 
that,  with  all  their  worth,  their  life  had  been  one  pro- 
tracted struggle.  His  sympathies  were  cordially  with  the 
class.  He  desired  with  all  his  heart  to  see  them  with  a 
little  less  of  the  burden  and  more  of  the  comfort  of  life. 
And  he  believed  very  thoroughly  that,  as  Christian  set- 
tlers in  a  heathen  country,  they  might  do  more  to  promote 
Christianity  among  the  natives  than  solitary  missionaries 
could  accomplish. 

His  parents  and  sisters  were  not  forgotten.  His  letters 
to  home  are  again  somewhat  in  the  apologetic  vein.  He 
feels  that  some  explanation  must  be  given  of  his  own 
work,  and  some  vindication  of  his  coadjutors: 

"  We  are  working  hard,"  he  writes  to  his  mother,  "  at  what  some 
can  see  at  a  glance  the  import^^nce  of,  while  to  others  we  appear  follow- 
ing after  the  glory  of  discovering  lakes,  mountains,  jenny-nettles,  and 
puddock-stools.  In  reference  to  these  people  I  always  remember  a 
story  told  me  by  the  late  Dr.  Philip  with  great  glee.  "When  a  young 
minister  in  Aberdeen,  he  visited  an  old  woman  in  affliction,  and  began 
to  talk  very  fair  to  her  on  the  duty  of  resignation,  trusting,  hoping, 
and  all  the  rest  of  it,  when  the  old  woman  looked  up  into  his  face,  and 
said,  *  Peer  thing,  ye  ken  naething  aboot  it.'  This  is  what  I  say  to 
those  who  set  themselves  up  to  judge  another  man's  servant.  We  hope 
our  good  Master  may  permit  us  to  do  some  good  to  our  fellow-men." 

Hlri  correspondence  with  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  is 
likewise  full  of  the  idea  of  the  colony.  He  is  thoroughly 
persuaded  that  no  good  will  ever  be  done  by  the  Portu- 
guese. They  are  a  worn-out  people — utterly  worn  out  by 
disease — their  stamina  consumed.  Fresh  European  blood 
must  be  poured  into  Africa.  In  consequence  of  recent 
discoveries,  he  now  sees  his  way  open,  and  all  his  hopes 
of  benefit  to  England  and  Africa  about  to  be  realized. 
This  must  have  been  one  of  Livingstone's  happiest  times. 


^82  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Visions  of  Christian  colonies,  of  the  spread  of  arts  and 
^vilization,  of  the  progress  of  Christianity  and  the  Chris- 
tian graces,  of  the  cultivation  of  cotton  and  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  slave-trade,  floated  before  him.  Already  the 
wilderness  seemed  to  be  blossoming.  But  the  bright 
consummation  was  not  so  near  as  it  seemed.  One  source 
of  mischief  was  yet  unchecked,  and  from  it  disastrous 
storms  were  preparing  to  break  on  the  enterprise. 

On  his  way  home.  Dr.  Livingstone's  health  was  not 
satisfactory,  but  this  did  not  keep  him  from  duty.  "  lAth 
October. — Went  on  17th  part  way  up  to  Murchison's  Cata- 
racts, and  yesterday  reached  it.  Very  ill  with  bleeding 
from  the  bowels  and  purging.  Bled  all  night.  Got  up  at 
one  A.M.  to  take  latitude." 

At  length,  on  4th  November,  1859,  letters  reached  him 
from  his  family.  "A  letter  from  Mrs.  L.  says  we  were 
blessed  with  a  little  daughter  on  16th  November,  1858,  at 
Kuruman.  A  fine  healthy  child.  The  Lord  bless  and 
make  her  his  own  child  in  heart  and  life!"  She  had 
been  nearly  a  year  in  the  world  before  he  heard  of  her 
eidstence. 


GOING  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO.       283 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

GOINQ  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO. 

A.D.  1860. 

Down  to  Kongone — State  of  the  ship — Further  delay — Letter  to  Secretary  of 
Universities  Mission — Letter  to  Mr.  Braithwaite — At  Tette — Miss  WhatelT's 
sugar-mill — With  his  brother  and  Kirk  at  Kebrabasa — Mode  of  traveling — 
Reappearence  of  old  friends — African  warfare  and  its  effects — Desolation — 
A  European  colony  desirable — Escape  from  rhinoceros — Rumors  of  Mo£&t 
— llie  Portuguese  local  Governors  oppose  Livingstone — He  becomes  un- 
popular with  them — Letter  to  Mr.  Young — Wants  of  the  country — The 
Makololo — Approach  home — Some  are  disappointed — News  of  the  death  of 
the  London  missionaries,  the  Helmores  and  others — Letter  to  Dr.  Mofij^ — 
The  Victoria  Falls  re-examined — Sekeletu  ill  of  leprosy — Treatment  and 
recovery — His  disappointment  at  not  seeing  Mrs,  Livingstone — Efforts  for 
the  spiritual  good  of  the  Makololo— Careful  observations  in  Natural  HistOTy — 
The  last  of  the  "Ma-Robert" — Cheering  prospect  of  the  Universities 
Mission — Letter  to  Mr.  Moore — to  Mr.  Young — He  wishes  another  ship- 
Letter  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  on  the  rumored  journey  of  Silva  Porto. 

It  was  necessary  to  go  down  to  Kongone  for  the  repair 
of  the  ship.  Livingstone  was  greatly  disappointed  with 
it,  and  thought  the  greed  of  the  vendor  had  supplied  him 
with  a  very  inferior  article  for  the  price  of  a  good  one. 
He^  thus  pours  forth  his  vexation  in  writing  to  a  friend : 
"  \  ery  grievous  it  is  to  be  standing  here  tinkering  when 
we  might  be  doing  good  service  to  the  cause  of  African 
civilization,  and  that  on  account  of  insatiable  greedineess. 
Burton  may  thank  L.  and  B.  that  we  are  not  at  the  other 
lakes  before  him.  The  loss  of  time  greediness  has  inflicted 
on  us  has  been  frightful.  My  plan  in  this  Expedition 
was  excellent,  but  it  did  not  include  provisions  against 
hypocrisy  and  fraud,  which  have  sorely  crippled  us,  and, 
indeed^  ruined  us,  as  a  scientific  Expedition." 


284  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Another  delay  was  caused  before  they  went  inward,  from 

their  having  to  wait  for  a  season  suitable  for  hunting,  as 

the  party  had  to  be  kept  in  food.     The  mail  from  England 

had  been  lost,  and  they  had  the  bitter  disappointment  of 

losing  a  year's  correspondence  from  home.     The  following 

portions  of  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Committee  for 

a  Universities  Mission  gives  a  view  of  the  situation  at  this 

time: 

"  River  Zambesi,  26^A  Jan.,  1860. 

"  The  defects  we  have  unfortunately  experienced  in  the  *  Ma-Robert,* 
or  rather  the  '  Asthmatic,'  are  so  numerous  that  it  would  require  a 
treatise  as  long  as  a  lawyer's  specification  of  any  simple  subject  to  give 
you  any  idea  of  them,  and  they  have  inflicted  so  much  toil  that  a 
feeling  of  sickness  comes  over  me  when  I  advert  to  them. 

"  No  one  will  ever  believe  the  toil  we  have  been  put  to  in  wood- 
cutting. The  quantity  consumed  is  enormous,  and  we  cannot  get 
sufficient  for  speed  into  the  furnace.  It  was  only  a  dogged  determina- 
tion not  to  be  beaten  that  carried  me  through.  .  .  .  But  all  will 
come  out  right  at  last.  We  are  not  alone,  though  truly  we  deserve  not 
his  presence.  He  encourages  the  trust  that  is  granted  by  the  word,  '  I 
am  with  you,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.'     .     .     . 

"  It  is  impossible  for  you  to  conceive  how  backward  everything  is 
here,  and  the  Portuguese  are  not  to  be  depended  upon  ;  their  establish- 
ments are  only  small  penal  settlements,  and  as  no  women  are  sent  out, 
the  state  of  morals  is  frightful.  The  only  chance  of  success  is  away 
from  them ;  nothing  would  prosper  in  their  vicinity.  After  all,  I  am 
convinced  that  were  Christianity  not  divine,  it  would  be  trampled  out 
by  its  professors.  Dr.  Kirk,  Mr.  C.  Livingstone,  and  Mr.  Rae,  with  two 
English  seamen,  do  well.  We  are  now  on  our  way  up  the  river  to  the 
Makololo  country,  but  must  go  overland  from  Kebrabasa,  or  in  a 
whaler.  We  should  be  better  able  to  plan  our  course  if  our  letters  had 
not  been  lost.  We  have  never  been  idle,  and  do  not  mean  to  be.  We 
have  been  trying  to  get  the  Portuguese  Government  to  acknowledge  free- 
trade  on  this  river,  and  but  for  long  delay  in  our  letters  the  negotiation 
might  have  been  far  advanced.  I  hope  Lord  John  Russell  will  help  in 
this  matter,  and  then  we  must  have  a  small  colony  or  missionary  and 
mercantile  settlement.  If  this  our  desire  is  granted,  it  is  probable  we 
shall  have  no  cause  to  lament  our  long  toil  and  detention  here.  My 
wife's  letters,  too,  were  lost,  so  I  don't  know  how  or  where  she  is.  Our 
separation,  and  the  work  I  have  been  engaged  in,  were  not  contemplated, 
but  they  have  led  to  our  opening  a  path  into  the  fine  cotton-field  in  the 
North.     You  will  see  that  the  discoveries  of  Burton  and  Speke  confirm 


GOING  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO.        285 

mine  respecting  the  form  of  the  continent  and  its  fertility.  It  is  an  im- 
mense field.  I  crave  the  honor  of  establishing  a  focus  of  Christianity 
in  it,  but  should  it  not  be  granted,  I  will  submit  as  most  unworthy.  I 
have  written  Mr.  Venn  twice,  and  from  yours  I  see  something  is  con- 
templated in  Cambridge.  ...  If  young  men  come  to  this  country, 
they  must  lay  their  account  with  doing  everything  for  themselves. 
They  must  not  expect  to  find  influence  at  once,  and  all  the  countries  near 
to  the  Portuguese  have  been  greatly  depopulated.  We  are  now  ascend- 
ing this  river  without  vegetables,  and  living  on  salt  beef  and  pork. 
The  slave-trade  has  done  its  work,  for  formerly  all  kinds  of  provisions 
could  be  procured  at  every  point,  and  at  the  cheapest  rate.  We  cannot 
get  anything  for  either  love  or  money,  in  a  country  the  fertility  of 
which  is  truly  astonishing. 

A  few  more  general  topics  are  touched  on  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Braithwaite: 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Sturge.  He  wrote  me  a 
long  letter  on  the  '  Peace  principle,'  and  before  I  could  study  it  care- 
fully, it  was  mislaid.  I  wrote  him  from  Tette,  as  I  did  not  wish  him 
to  suppose  I  neglected  him,  and  mentioned  the  murder  of  the  six 
Makololo  and  other  things,  as  difficulties  in  the  way  of  adopting  his 
views,  as  they  were  perfectly  unarmed,  and  there  was  no  feud  between 
the  tribes.  I  fear  that  my  letter  may  not  have  reached  him  alive. 
The  departure  of  Sir  Fowell  Buxton  and  others  is  very  unexpected. 
Sorry  to  see  the  loss  of  Dr.  Bowen,  of  Sierra  Leone — a  good  man  and 
a  true.  But  there  is  One  who  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us, 
and  to  carry  on  his  own  work.  A  terrible  war  that  was  in  Italy,  and 
the  peace  engenders  more  uneasy  forebodings  than  any  peace  ever 
heard  of.  It  is  well  that  Cod  and  not  the  devil  reigns,  and  will  bring 
his  own  purposes  to  pass,  right  through  the  midst  of  the  wars  and 
passions  of  men.  Have  you  any  knowledge  of  a  famous  despatch 
written  by  Sir  George  Crey  (late  of  the  Cape),  on  the  proper  treatment 
of  native  tribes  ?     I  wish  to  study  it. 

"  Tell  your  children  that  if  I  could  get  hold  of  a  hippopotamus  I 
would  eat  it  rather  than  allow  it  to  eat  me.  We  see  them  often,  but 
before  we  get  near  enough  to  get  a  shot  they  dive  down,  and  remain 
hidden  till  we  are  past.  As  for  lions,  we  never  see  them,  sometimes 
hear  a  roar  or  two,  but  that  is  all,  and  I  go  on  the  plan  put  forth  by  a 
little  girl  in  Scotland  who  saw  a  cow  coming  to  her  in  a  meadow,  '  O 
boo  I  boo  I  you  no  hurt  me,  I  no  hurt  you.'  " 

At  Tette  one  of  his  occupations  was  to  fit  up  a  sugar- 
mill,  the  gift  of  Miss  Whately,  of  Dublin,  and  some  friends. 


286  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

To  that  lady  he  writes  a  long  letter  of  nineteen  pages.  He 
tells  her  he  had  just  put  up  her  beautiful  sugar-mill,  to 
show  the  natives  what  could  be  done  by  machinery.  Then 
he  adverts  to  the  wonderful  freedom  from  sickness  that 
his  party  had  enjoyed  in  the  delta  of  the  Zambesi,  and 
proceeds  to  give  an  account  of  the  Shire  Valley  and  its 
people.  He  finds  ground  for  a  favorable  contrast  between 
the  Shire  natives  and  the  Tette  Portuguese : 

"  They  (the  natives)  have  fences  made  to  guard  the  women  from  the 
alligators,  all  along  the  Shir6;  at  Tette  they  have  none,  and  two  women 
were  taken  past  our  vessel  in  the  mouths  of  these  horrid  brutes.  The 
number  of  women  taken  is  so  great  as  to  make  the  Portuguese  swear 
every  time  they  speak  of  them,  and  yet,  when  I  proposed  to  the  priest 
to  make  a  collection  for  a  fence,  and  offered  twenty  dollars,  he  only 
smiled.  You  Protestants  don't  know  all  the  good  you  do  by  keeping 
our  friends  of  the  only  true  and  infallible  Church  up  to  their  duty. 
Here,  and  in  Angola,  we  see  how  it  is,  when  they  are  not  provoked— 
if  not  to  love,  to  good  works.     .     .     . 

"On  telling  the  Makololo  that  the  sugar-mill  had  been  sent  to 
Sekeletu  by  a  lady,  who  collected  a  sum  among  other  ladies  to  buy  it, 
they  replied,  '  0  na  le  pelu' — she  has  a  heart.  I  was  very  proud  of  it, 
and  so  were  they. 

*' .  .  .  With  reference  to  the  future,  I  am  trying  to  do  what  I  did 
before — obey  the  injunction,  'Commit  thy  way  to  the  Lord,  trust  also 
in  Him,  and  He  shall  bring  it  to  pass.'  And  I  hope  that  He  will 
make  some  use  of  me.  My  attention  is  now  directed  specially  to  the 
fact  that  there  is  no  country  better  adapted  for  producing  the  raw 
materials  of  English  manufactures  than  this.     .     .     . 

*'  See  to  what  a  length  I  have  run.  I  have  become  palaverist.  I 
beg  you  to  present  my  respectful  salutat'on  to  the  Archbishop  and 
Mrs.  Whately,  and  should  you  meet  any  of  the  kind  contributors,  say 
how  thankful  I  am  to  them  all." 

From  Tette  he  writes  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  7th 
February,  1860,  urging  his  plan  for  a  steamer  on  Lake 
Nyassa :  "  If  Government  furnishes  the  means,  all  right ; 
if  not,  I  shall  spend  my  book-money  on  it.  I  don't  need 
to  touch  the  children's  fund,  and  mine  could  not  be  better 
spent.  People  who  are  born  rich  sometimes  become  mis- 
erable from  a  fear  of  becoming  poor;   but  I   have  the 


OOINO  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO.        287 

advantage,  you  sec,  in  not  being  afraid  to  die  poor.  If  I 
live,  I  must  succeed  in  what  I  have  undertaken;  death 
alone  will  put  a  stop  to  my  efforts." 

A  month  after  he  writes  to  the  same  friend,  from  Kon- 
gono,  10th  March,  18G0,  that  he  is  sending  liae  home  for 
a  vessel: 

"I  tell  Lord  John  Ruflsell  that  he  (Rae)  may  thereby  do  u«  more 
Bcrvice  than  he  can  now  do  in  a  worn-out  steamer,  with  35  patchee, 
covering  at  least  100  holes.  I  Hay  to  his  Lordship,  that  after  we  have, 
by  patient  investigation  and  experiment,  at  the  risk  of  life,  rendered  the 
fever  not  more  formidable  than  a  common  cold ;  found  access,  from  a 
good  harbor  on  the  coast,  to  the  main  stream  ;  and  discovered  a  path- 
way into  the  magnificent  Highland  lake  region,  which  promises  so 
fairly  for  our  commerce  in  cotton,  and  for  our  policy  in  suppressing 
the  trade  in  slaves,  I  earnestly  hope  that  he  will  crown  our  efforts  by 
securing  our  free  passage  through  those  parts  of  the  Zambesi  and  Shir^ 
of  which  the  Portuguese  make  no  use,  and  by  enabling  us  to  introduce 
civilization  in  a  manner  which  will  extend  the  honor  and  influence  of 
the  English  name." 

In  his  communications  with  the  Government  at  home, 
Livingstone  never  failed  to  urge  the  importance  of  their 
securing  the  free  navigation  of  the  Zambesi.  The  Portu- 
guese on  the  river  were  now  beginning  to  get  an  inkling 
of  his  drift,  and  to  feel  indignant  at  any  countenance  he 
was  receiving  from  their  own  Government. 

Passing  up  the  Zambesi  with  Charles  Livingstone,  Dr. 
Kirk,  and  such  of  the  Makololo  as  were  willing  to  go 
home.  Dr.  Livingstone  took  a  new  look  at  Kcbrabasa, 
from  a  different  point,  still  believing  that  in  flood  it  would 
allow  a  steamer  to  pass.  Of  his  mode  of  traveling  we  have 
some  pleasant  glimpses.  He  always  tried  to  make  progress 
more  a  pleasure  than  a  toil,  and  found  that  kindly  con- 
sideration for  the  feelings  even  of  blacks,  the  pleasure  of 
observing  scenery  and  everything  new,  as  one  moves  on 
at  an  ordinary  pace,  and  the  participation  in  the  most 
delightful  rest  with  his  fellows,  made  traveling  delightful. 
He  was  gratified  to  find  that  he  was  as  able  for  the  fatigue 


288  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

as  the  natives.  Even  the  headman,  who  carried  little 
more  than  he  did  himself,  and  never,  like  him,  hunted  in 
the  afternoon,  was  not  equal  to  him.  The  hunting  was 
no  small  addition  to  the  toil ;  the  tired  hunter  was  often 
tempted  to  give  it  up,  after  bringing  what  would  have 
been  only  sufficient  for  the  three  whites,  and  leave  the 
rest,  thus  sending  "the  idle,  ungrateful  poor"  supperless 
to  bed.  But  this  was  not  his  way.  The  blacks  were 
thought  of  in  hunting  as  well  as  the  whites.  "  It  is  only 
by  continuance  in  well-doing,"  he  says,  "  even  to  the 
length  of  what  the  worldly-wise  call  weakness,  that  the 
conviction  is  produced  anywhere,  that  our  motives  are 
high  enough  to  secure  sincere  respect." 

As  they  proceeded,  some  of  his  old  acquaintances  re- 
appeared, notably  Mpende,  who  had  given  him  such  a 
threatening  reception,  but  had  now  learned  that  he 
belonged  to  a  tribe  "that  loved  the  black  man  and  did 
not  make  slaves."  A  chief  named  Pangola  appeared,  at 
first  tipsy  and  talkative,  demanding  a  rifle,  and  next 
morning,  just  as  they  were  beginning  divine  service,  re- 
appeared sober  to  press  his  request.  Among  the  Baenda- 
Pezi,  or  Go-Nakeds,  whose  only  clothing  is  a  coat  of  red 
ochre,  a  noble  specimen  of  the  race  appeared  in  full  dress, 
consisting  of  a  long  tobacco-pipe,  and  brought  a  handsome 
present. 

The  country  bore  the  usual  traces  of  the  results  of 
African  warfare.  At  times  a  clever  chief  stands  up,  who 
brings  large  tracts  under  his  dominion ;  at  his  death  his 
empire  dissolves,  and  a  fresh  series  of  desolating  wars 
ensues.  In  one  region  which  was  once  studded  with  vil- 
lages, they  walked  a  whole  week  without  meeting  any 
one.  A  European  colony,  he  was  sure,  would  be  invalua- 
ble for  constraining  the  tribes  to  live  in  peace.  "  Thou- 
sands of  industrious  natives  would  gladly  settle  round  it, 
and  engage  in  that  peaceful  pursuit  of  agriculture  and 
trade  of  which  they  are  so  fond,  and,  undistracted  by  wars 


GOING  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO.       289 

and  rumors  of  wars,  might  listen  to  the  purifying  and 
ennobling  truths  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ."  At 
Zumbo,  the  most  picturesque  site  in  the  country,  they  saw 
the  ruins  of  Jesuit  missions,  reminding  them  that  there 
men  once  met  to  utter  the  magnificent  words,  "  Thou  art 
the  King  of  Glory,  0  Christ!"  but  without  leaving  one 
permanent  trace  of  their  labors  in  the  belief  and  worship 
of  the  people. 

Wherever  they  go.  Dr.  Livingstone  has  his  eye  on  the 
trees  and  plants  and  fruits  of  the  region,  with  a  view  to 
commerce;  while  he  is  no  less  interested  to  watch  the 
treatment  of  fever,  when  cases  occur,  and  greatly  gratified 
that  Dr.  Kirk,  who  had  been  trying  a  variety  of  medicines 
on  himself,  made  rapid  recovery  when  he  took  Dr.  Living- 
stone's pills.  He  used  to  say  if  he  had  followed  Morison, 
and  set  up  as  pill-maker,  he  might  have  made  his  fortune. 
Passing  through  the  Bazizulu  he  had  an  escape  from  a 
rhinoceros,  as  remarkable  though  not  quite  as  romantic  as 
his  escape  from  the  lion ;  the  animal  came  dashing  at  him, 
and  suddenly,  for  some  unknown  reason,  stopped  when 
close  to  him,  and  gave  him  time  to  escape,  as  if  it  had 
been  struck  by  his  color,  and  doubtful  if  hunting  a  white 
man  would  be  good  sport. 

At  a  month's  distance  from  Mosilikatse,  they  heard  a 
report  that  the  missionaries  had  been  there,  that  they  had 
told  the  chief  that  it  was  wrong  to  kill  men,  and  that  the 
chief  had  said  he  was  born  to  kill  people,  but  would  drop 
the  practice — an  interesting  testimony  to  the  power  of 
Mr.  Mofiat's  words.  Everywhere  the  Makololo  proclaimed 
that  they  were  the  friends  of  peace,  and  their  course  was 
like  a  triumphal  procession,  the  people  of  the  villages 
loading  them  with  presents. 

But  a  new  revelation  came  to  Dr.  Livingstone.  Though 
the  Portuguese  Government  had  given  public  orders  that 
he  was  to  be  aided  in  every  possible  way,  it  was  evident 
^hat  private  instructions  had  come,  whieh,  unintentionally 

9?> 


290  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

perhaps,  certainly  produced  the  opposite  effects.  The  Por« 
tuguese  who  were  engaged  in  the  slave-trade  were  far  too 
much  devoted  to  it  ever  to  encourage  an  enterprise  that 
aimed  at  extirpating  it.  Indeed,  it  became  painfully 
apparent  to  Dr.  Livingstone  that  the  effect  of  his  opening 
up  the  Zambesi  had  been  to  afford  the  Portuguese  traders 
new  facilities  for  conducting  their  unhallowed  traffic ;  and 
had  it  not  been  for  his  promise  to  bring  back  the  Makololo, 
he  would  now  have  abandoned  the  Zambesi  and  tried 
the  Rovuma,  as  a  way  of  reaching  Nyassa.  His  future 
endeavors  in  connection  with  the  Rovuma  receive  their 
explanation  from  this  unwelcome  discovery.  The  signifi- 
cance of  the  discovery  in  other  respects  cannot  fail  to  be 
seen.  Hitherto  Livingstone  had  been  on  friendly  terms 
with  the  Portuguese  Government;  he  could  be  so  no 
longer.  The  remarkable  kindness  he  had  so  often  received 
from  Portuguese  officers  and  traders  made  it  a  most  pain- 
ful trial  to  break  with  the  authorities.  But  there  was  no 
alternative.  Livingstone^s  courage  was  equal  to  the 
occasion,  though  he  could  not  but  see  that  his  new  attitude 
to  the  Portuguese  must  give  an  altered  aspect  to  his  Expe- 
dition, and  create  difficulties  that  might  bring  it  to  an  end. 
A  letter  to  Mr.  James  Young,  dated  22d  July,  near 
Kalosi,  gives  a  free  and  familiar  account  of  "  what  he  was 
about" : 

"This  18  July,  1860,  and  no  letter  from  you  except  one  written  a  few 
months  after  we  sailed  in  the  year  of  grace  1858.  "What  you  are  doing 
I  cannot  divine.  I  am  ready  to  believe  any  mortal  thing  except  that 
Louis  Napoleon  has  taken  you  away  to  make  paraffin  oil  for  the  Tuile- 
ries.  I  don't  believe  that  he  is  supreme  ruler,  or  that  he  can  go  an 
inch  beyond  his  tether.  Well,  as  I  cannot  conceive  what  you  are 
about,  I  must  tell  you  what  we  are  doing,  and  we  are  just  trudging  up 
the  Zambesi  as  if  there  were  no  steam  and  no  locomotive  but  shank's 
nag  yet  discovered.     .     .     . 

"  We  have  heard  of  a  mission  for  the  Interior  from  the  English  Uni- 
versities, and  this  is  the  best  news  we  have  got  since  we  came  to  Africa. 
I  have  recommended  up  Shir6  as  a  proper  sphere,  and  hasten  back  so 
AA  to  be  in  the  way  if  any  assistance  can  be  rendered.     I  rejoic-e  at  tii* 


GOING  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO,       291 

prospect  with  all  my  heart,  and  am  glad,  too,  that  it  is  to  be  a  Church 
of  England  Mission,  for  that  Church  has  never  put  forth  its  strength, 
and  I  trust  this  may  draw  it  forth.  I  am  tired  of  discovery  when  no 
fruit  follows.  It  was  refreshing  to  be  able  to  sit  down  every  evening 
with  the  Makololo  again,  and  tell  them  of  Him  who  came  down  from 
heaven  to  save  sinners.  The  unmerciful  toil  of  the  steamer  prevented 
me  from  following  my  bent  as  I  should  have  done.  Poor  fellows  1  they 
have  learnt  no  good  from  their  contact  with  slavery;  many  have  im- 
bibed the  slave  spirit ;  many  had  married  slave-women  and  got 
children.  These  I  did  not  expect  to  return,  as  they  were  captives  of 
Sekeletu,  and  were  not  his  own  proper  people.  All  professed  a  strong 
desire  to  return.  To  test  them  I  proposed  to  burn  their  village,  but  to 
this  they  would  not  assent.  We  then  went  out  a  few  miles  and  told 
them  that  any  one  wishing  to  remain  might  do  so  without  guilt.  A 
few  returned,  but  though  this  was  stated  to  them  repeatedly  afterward 
they  preferred  running  away  like  slaves.  I  never  saw  any  of  the  interior 
people  so  devoid  of  honor.  Some  complained  of  sickness,  and  all  these 
I  sent  back,  intrusting  them  with  their  burdens.  About  twenty-five 
returned  in  all  to  live  at  Tette.  Some  were  drawn  away  by  promises 
made  to  them  as  elephant-hunters.  I  had  no  objection  to  their  trying 
to  better  their  condition,  but  was  annoyed  at  finding  that  they  would 
not  tell  their  intentions,  but  ran  away  as  if  I  were  using  compulsion. 
I  have  learned  more  of  the  degrading  nature  of  slavery  of  late  than  I 
ever  conceived  before.  Our  20  millions  were  well  spent  in  ridding  our* 
selves  of  the  incubus,  and  I  think  we  ought  to  assist  our  countrymen  in 
the  West  Indies  to  import  free  labor  from  India.  ...  I  cannot  tell  you 
how  glad  I  am  at  a  prospect  of  a  better  system  being  introduced  into 
Eastern  Africa  than  that  which  has  prevailed  for  ages,  the  evils  of 
which  have  only  been  intensified  by  Portuguese  colonization,  as  it  la 
called.  Here  we  are  passing  through  a  well-peopled,  fruitful  region— 
a  prolonged  valley,  for  we  have  the  highlands  far  on  our  right.  I  did 
not  observe  before  that  all  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi  are  cotton-fields. 
I  never  intended  to  write  a  book  and  take  no  note  of  cotton,  which  I 
now  see  everywhere.  On  the  Chongwe  we  found  a  species  which  ii 
cultivated  south  of  the  Zambesi,  which  resembles  some  kinds  from. 
South  America. 

"All  that  is  needed  is  religious  and  mercantile  establishments  t< 
begin  a  better  system  and  promote  peaceful  intercourse.  Here  we  art 
among  a  people  who  go  stark  naked  with  no  more  sense  of  shame  than 
we  have  with  our  clothes  on.  The  women  have  more  sense  and  go 
decently.  You  see  great  he-animals  all  about  your  camp  carrying  their 
indispensable  tobacco-pipes  and  iron  tongs  to  lift  fire  with,  but  the 
idea  of  a  fig-leaf  has  never  entered  the  mind.     They  cultivate  largely, 


292  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

have  had  enormous  crops  of  grain,  work  well  in  iron,  and  show  taste 
in  their  dwellings,  stools,  baskets,  and  musical  instruments.  They  are 
very  hospitable,  too,  and  appreciate  our  motives ;  but  shame  has  been 
unaccountably  left  out  of  the  question.  They  can  give  no  reason  for  it 
except  that  all  their  ancestors  went  exactly  as  they  do.  Can  you  explain 
why  Adam's  first  feeling  has  no  trace  of  existence  in  his  offspring?" 

When  the  party  reached  the  outskirts  of  Sekeletu's 
territory  the  news  they  heard  was  not  encouraging.  Some 
of  the  men  heard  that  in  their  absence  some  of  their  wives 
had  been  variously  disposed  of.  One  had  been  killed  for 
witchcraft,  another  had  married  again,  while  Masakasa 
was  told  that  two  years  ago  a  kind  of  wild  Irish  wake  had 
been  celebrated  in  honor  of  his  memory ;  the  news  made 
him  resolve,  when  he  presented  himself  among  them,  to 
declare  himself  an  inhabitant  from  another  world  1  One 
poor  fellow's  wail  of  anguish  for  his  wife  was  most  dis- 
tressing to  hear. 

But  far  more  tragical  was  the  news  of  the  missionaries 
who  had  gone  from  the  London  Missionary  Society  to  Lin- 
yanti,  to  labor  among  Sekeletu's  people.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Helmore  and  several  of  his  party  had  succumbed  to  fever, 
and  the  survivors  had  retired.  Dr.  Livingstone  was 
greatly  distressed,  and  not  a  little  hurt,  because  he  had 
not  heard  a  word  about  the  mission,  nor  been  asked  advice 
about  any  of  the  arrangements.  If  only  the  Helmores 
and  their  comrades  had  followed  the  treatment  practiced 
by  him  so  often,  and  in  this  very  valley  at  this  time  by  his 
brother  Charles,  they  would  probably  have  recovered- 
All  spoke  kindly  of  Mr.  Helmore,  who  had  quite  won  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  Knowing  their  language,  he  had  at 
once  begun  to  preach,  and  some  of  the  young  men  at 
Sesheke  were  singing  the  hymns  he  had  taught  them. 
Humors  had  gone  abroad  that  some  of  the  missionaries 
had  been  poisoned.  In  some  quarters  blame  was  cast  on 
Livingstone  for  having  misled  the  Society  as  to  the 
character  of  Sekeletu  and  his  disposition  toward  mission- 


GOING  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO.        293 

aries;  but  Livingstone  satisfied  himself  that,  though  the 
missionaries  had  been  neglected  no  foul  play  had  taken 
place;  fever  alone  had  caused  the  deaths,  and  want  of 
skill  in  managing  the  people  had  brought  the  remainder 
of  the  troubles.  One  piece  of  good  news  which  he  heard 
at  Linyanti  was  that  his  old  friend  Sechele  was  doing  well. 
He  had  a  Hanoverian  missionary,  nine  tribes  were  under 
him,  and  the  schools  were  numerously  attended. 

Writing  to  Dr.  Moffat,  10th  August,  1860,  from  Zambesi 
Falls,  he  says : 

"  W'.'h  great  sorrow  we  learned  the  death  of  our  much -esteemed 
friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Helmore,  two  days  ago.  We  were  too  late  to  be 
of  any  service,  for  the  younger  missionaries  had  retired,  probably 
dispirited  by  the  loss  of  their  leader.  It  is  evident  that  the  fever  when 
untreated  is  as  fatal  now  as  it  proved  in  the  case  of  Commodore  Owen's 
officers  in  this  river,  or  in  the  great  Niger  Expedition.  And  yet  what 
poor  drivel  was  poured  forth  when  I  adopted  energetic  measures  for 
speedily  removing  any  Europeans  out  of  the  Delta.  We  were  not  then 
aware  that  the  remedy  which  was  first  found  efficacious  in  our  own  little 
Thomas  on  Lake  'Ngami,  in  1850,  and  that  cured  myself  and  attendants 
during  my  solitary  journeyings,  was  a  certain  cure  for  the  disease,  with* 
out  loss  of  strength  in  Europeans  generally.  This  we  now  know  by 
ample  experience  to  be  the  case.  Warburg's  drops,  which  have  a  great 
reputation  in  India,  here  cause  profuse  perspiration  only,  and  the  fever 
remains  uncured.  With  our  remedy,  of  which  we  make  no  secret,  a 
man  utterly  prostrated  is  roused  to  resume  his  march  next  day.  I  have 
Bent  the  prescription  to  John,  as  I  doubt  being  able  to  go  so  far  South 
as  Mosilikatse's. 

Again  the  grand  Victoria  Falls  are  reached,  and  Charles 
Livingstone,  who  has  seen  Niagara,  gives  the  preference  to 
Mosi-oa-tunya.  By  the  route  which  they  took,  they  would 
have  passed  the  Falls  at  twenty  miles'  distance,  but  Dr. 
Livingstone  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  show  them 
to  his  companions.  All  his  former  computations  as  to 
their  size  were  found  to  be  considerably  within  the  mark ; 
instead  of  a  thousand  yards  broad  they  were  more  than 
eighteen  hundred,  and  whereas  he  had  said  that  the  height 
of  fall  was  about  100  feet,  it  turned  out  to  be  310.    Hia 


294  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

habit  of  keepx'ng  within  the  mark  in  all  his  statements 
of  remarkable  things  was  thus  exemplified. 

On  coming  among  his  old  friends  the  Makololo,  he  found 
them  in  low  spirits  owing  to  protracted  drought,  and  Seke- 
letu  was  ill  of  leprosy.  He  was  in  the  hands  of  a  native 
doctress,  who  was  persuaded  to  suspend  her  treatment, 
and  the  lunar  caustic  applied  by  Drs.  Livingstone  and 
Kirk  had  excellent  effects.^  On  going  to  Linyanti,  Dr. 
Livingstone  found  the  wagon  and  other  articles  which  he 
had  left  there  in  1853,  safe  and  sound,  except  from  the 
effects  of  weather  and  the  white  ants.  The  expressions  of 
kindness  and  confidence  toward  him  on  the  part  of  the 
natives  greatly  touched  him.  The  people  were  much  dis» 
appointed  at  not  seeing  Mrs.  Livingstone  and  the  children. 
But  this  confidence  was  the  result  of  his  way  of  dealing 
with  them.  "  It  ought  never  to  be  forgotten  that  influence 
among  the  heathen  can  be  acquired  only  by  patient  con- 
tinuance in  well-doing,  and  that  good  manners  are  as 
necessary  among  barbarians  as  among  the  civilized."  The 
Makololo  were  the  most  interesting  tribe  that  Dr.  Living- 
stone had  ever  seen.  While  now  with  them  he  was 
unwearied  in  his  efforts  for  their  spiritual  good.  In  his 
Journal  we  find  these  entries : 

^^  Septemher  2,  1860. — On  Sunday  evening  went  over  to  the  people, 
giving  a  general  summary  of  Christian  faith  by  the  life  of  Christ. 
Asked  them  to  speak  about  it  afterward.  Eeplied  that  these  things 
were  above  them — they  could  not  answer  me.  I  said  if  I  spoke  of 
camels  and  buffaloes  tamed,  they  understood,  though  they  had  never 
seen  them  ;  why  not  perceive  the  story  of  Christ,  the  witnesses  to  which 
refused  to  deny  it,  though  killed  for  maintaining  it?  Went  on  to  speak 
of  the  resurrection.  All  were  listening  eagerly  to  the  statements  about 
this,  especially  when  they  heard  that  they,  too,  must  rise  and  be  judged. 
Lerimo  said,  ^This  I  won't  believe.'  'Well,  the  guilt  lies  between  you 
and  Jesus.'  This  always  arrests  attention.  Spoke  of  blood  shed  by 
them ;  the  conversation  continued  till  they  said,  *  It  was  time  for  mc  to 
cross,  for  the  river  was  dangerous  at  night.'  " 

*  In  1864,  while  residing  at  Newstead  Abbey,  and  writing  his  book,  The  Zam- 
§tsi  and  Us  TribtUaries,  Dr.  Livingstone  heard  of  the  death  of  Sekel6ta. 


GOmO  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO,        295 

*^  September  9. — Spoke  to  the  people  on  the  north  side  of  the  river — 
wind  prevented  evening  service  on  the  south." 

The  last  subject  on  which  he  preached  before  leaving 
them  on  this  occasion  was  the  great  resurrection.  They 
told  him  they  could  not  believe  a  reunion  of  the  particles 
of  the  body  possible.  Dr.  Livingstone  gave  them  in  reply 
a  chemical  illustration,  and  then  referred  to  the  authority 
of  the  Book  that  taught  them  the  doctrine.  And  the  poor 
people  were  more  willing  to  give  in  to  the  authority  of 
the  Book  than  to  the  chemical  illustration ! 

In  The  Zambesi  and  its  Tributaries  this  journey  to  the 
Makololo  country  and  back  occupies  one-third  of  the 
volume,  though  it  did  not  lead  to  any  very  specia^  insults. 
But  it  enabled  Dr.  Livingstone  to  make  great  additions  to 
his  knowledge  both  of  the  people  and  the  country.  His 
observations  are  recorded  with  the  utmost  care,  for  though 
he  might  not  be  able  to  turn  them  to  immediate  use,  it 
was  likely,  and  even  certain,  that  they  would  be  useful 
some  day.  Indeed,  the  spirit  of  faith  is  apparent  in  the 
whole  narrative,  as  if  he  could  not  pass  over  even  the 
most  insignificant  details.  The  fish  in  the  rivers,  the 
wild  animals  in  the  woods,  the  fissures  in  the  rocks,  the 
course  of  the  streams,  the  composition  of  the  minerals  and 
gravels,  and  a  thousand  other  phenomena,  are  carefully 
observed  and  chronicled.  The  crowned  cranes  beginning 
to  pair,  the  flocks  of  spurwinged  geese,  the  habits  of  the 
ostrich,  the  nests  of  bee-eaters,  pass  under  review  in  rapid 
succession.  His  sphere  of  observation  ranges  from  the 
structure  of  the  great  continent  itself  to  the  serrated  bone 
of  the  konokono,  or  the  mandible  of  the  ant. 

Leaving  Sesheke  on  the  17th  September,  they  reached 
Tette  on  the  23d  November,  1860,  whence  they  started  for 
Kongone  with  the  unfortunate  "Ma-Robert."  But  the 
days  of  that  asthmatic  old  lady  were  numbered.  On  the 
21st  December  she  grounded  on  a  sand-bank,  and  could 
not  get  off.  A  few  days  before  this  catastrophe  Living- 
stone writes  to  Mr.  Yovmsrt 


296  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

^^Lupata,  4ih  Dec,  1860. — Many  thanks  for  all  you  Lave  been  doing 
about  the  steamer  and  everything  else.  You  seem  to  have  gone  about 
matters  in  a  most  business-like  manner,  and  once  for  all  I  assure  you 
I  am  deeply  grateful. 

**  We  are  now  on  our  way  down  to  the  sea,  in  hopes  of  meeting  the 
new  steamer  for  which  you  and  other  friends  exerted  yourselves  so 
zealously.  We  are  in  the  old  *  Asthmatic,'  though  we  gave  her  up 
before  leaving  in  May  last.  Our  engineer  has  been  doctoring  her 
bottom  with  fat  and  patches,  and  pronounced  it  safe  to  go  down  the 
river  by  dropping  slowly.  Every  day  a  new  leak  bursts  out,  and  he  is 
in  plastering  and  scoring,  the  pump  going  constantly.  I  would  not 
have  ventured  again,  but  our  whaler  is  as  bad, — all  eaten  by  the  teredo, 
— so  I  thought  it  as  well  to  take  both,  and  stick  to  that  which  swims 
longest.  You  can  put  your  thumb  through  either  of  them ;  they  never 
ian  move  again ;  I  never  expected  to  find  either  afloat,  but  the  engineer 
bad  nothing  else  to  do,  and  it  saves  us  from  buying  dear  canoes  from 
the  Portuguese. 

"20<A  Dec. — One  day,  above  Senna,  the  *  Ma-Robert'  stuck  on  a 
Band-bank  and  filled,  so  we  had  to  go  ashore  and  leave  her.'* 

The  correspondence  of  this  year  indicates  a  growing 
delight  at  the  prospect  of  the  Universities  Mission.  It 
was  this,  indeed,  mainly  that  kept  up  his  spirits  under  the 
depression  caused  by  the  failure  of  the  "  Ma-Robert,"  and 
other  mishaps  of  the  Expedition,  the  endless  delays  and 
worries  that  had  resulted  from  that  cause,  and  the  manner 
in  which  both  the  Portuguese  and  the  French  were  coun- 
ter-working him  by  encouraging  the  slave-trade.  While 
professedly  encouraging  emigration,  the  French  were 
really  extending  slavery. 

Here  is  his  lively  account  of  himself  to  his  friend  Mr. 
Moore : 

"Tette,  2Sth  Novemhevy  1860. 
"My  dear  Moore, — And  why  didn't  you  begin  when  you  were  so 
often  on  the  point  of  writing,  but  didn't?  This  that  you  have  accom- 
plished is  so  far  good,  but  very  short.  Hope  you  are  not  too  old  to 
learn.  You  have  heard  of  our  hindrances  and  annoyances,  and,  possi- 
bly, that  we  have  done  some  work  notwithstanding.  Thanks  to  Provi- 
dence, we  have  made  some  progress,  and  it  is  likely  our  operations  will 
yet  have  a  decided  effect  on  slave-trading  in  Eastern  Africa.  I  am 
greatly  delighted  «rith  the  prospect  of  a  Church  of  England  mission  to 


GOING  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO.       297 

Central  Africa.  That  is  a  good  omen  for  those  who  are  sitting  in 
darkness,  and  I  trust  that  in  process  of  time  great  benefits  will  be  con- 
ferred on  our  own  overcrowded  population  at  home.  There  is  room 
enough  and  to  spare  in  the  fair  world  our  Father  has  prepared  for  all 
his  progeny.  I  pray  to  be  made  a  harbinger  of  good  to  many,  both 
white  and  black. 

"  I  like  to  hear  that  some  abuse  me  now,  and  say  that  I  am  ^o 
Christian.  Many  good  things  were  said  of  me  which  I  did  not  deserve, 
and  I  feared  to  read  them.  I  shall  read  every  word  I  can  on  the  other 
side,  and  that  will  prove  a  sedative  to  what  I  was  forced  to  hear  of  an 
opposite  tendency.  I  pray  that  He  who  has  lifted  me  up  and  guided 
me  thus  far,  will  not  desert  me  now,  but  make  me  useful  in  my  day 
and  generation.  'I  will  never  leave  thee  nor  forsake  thee.'  So  let 
it  be. 

**  I  saw  poor  Helmore's  grave  lately.  Had  my  book  been  searched 
for  excellencies,  they  might  have  seen  a  certain  cure  for  African  fever. 
We  were  curing  it  at  a  lower  and  worse  part  of  the  river  at  the  very 
time  that  they  were  helplessly  perishing,  and  so  quickly,  that  more 
than  a  day  was  never  lost  after  the  operation  of  the  remedy,  though  we 
were  marching  on  foot.  Our  tramp  was  over  600  miles.  We  dropped 
down  stream  again  in  canoes  from  Sinamanero  to  Chicova — thence  to 
this  on  shank's  nag.  We  go  down  to  the  sea  immediately,  to  meet  our 
new  steamer.     Our  punt  was  a  sham  and  a  snare. 

"My  love  to  Mary  and  all  the  children,  with  all  our  friends  at 
Congleton." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  James  Young,  Dr.  Livingstone  gives 
good  reasons  for  not  wishing  to  push  the  colonization 
scheme  at  present,  as  he  had  recommended  to  the  Univer- 
sities Mission  to  add  a  similar  enterprise  to  their  under- 
taking : 

"If  you  read  all  I  have  written  you  by  this  mail,  you  will  deserve 
to  be  called  a  literary  character.  I  find  that  I  did  not  touch  on  the 
colonization  scheme.  I  have  not  changed  in  respect  to  it,  but  the 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  mission  have  taken  the  matter  up,  and  as  I 
shall  do  all  I  can  to  aid  them,  a  little  delay  will,  perhaps,  be  advisable. 

"  We  are  waiting  for  our  steamer,  and  expect  her  every  day ;  our 
first  trip  is  a  secret,  and  you  will  keep  it  so.  We  go  to  the  Eovuma, 
a  river  exterior  to  the  Portuguese  claims,  as  soon  as  the  vessel  arrives. 
Captain  Oldfield  of  the  ^  Lyra'  is  sent  already,  to  explore,  as  far  as  he 
can,  in  that  ship.  The  entrance  is  fine,  and  forty-five  miles  are  known, 
but  we  keep  our  movements  secret  from  the  Portuguese — and  so  must 


298  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

you ;  they  seize  everything  they  see  in  the  newspapers.     Who  are  my 

imprudent  friends  that  publish  everything?    I  suspect  Mr. ,  of , 

but  no  one  gives  me  a  name  or  a  clue.  Some  expected  me  to  feel  sweet 
at  being  jewed  by  a  false  philanthropist,  and  bamboozled  by  a  silly 
K.  N.  I  did  not,  and  could  not,  seem  so  j  but  I  shall  be  more  careful 
in  future. 

"Again  back  to  the  colony.  It  is  not  to  sleep,  but  preparation  must 
be  made  by  collecting  information,  and  maturing  our  plans.  I  shall  be 
able  to  give  definite  instructions  as  soon  as  I  see  how  the  other  mission 
works — at  its  beginning — and  when  we  see  if  the  new  route  we  may 
discover  has  a  better  path  to  Nyassa  than  by  Shir6 — we  shall  choose 
the  best,  of  course,  and  let  you  know  as  soon  as  possible.  I  think  the 
Government  will  not  hold  back  if  we  have  a  feasible  plan  to  offer.  I 
have  recommended  to  the  Universities  Mission  a  little  delay  till  we 
explore, — and  for  a  working  staff,  two  gardeners  acquainted  with  farm- 
ing ;  two  country  carpenters,  capable  of  erecting  sheds  and  any  rough 
work ;  two  traders  to  purchase  and  prepare  cotton  for  exportation  ;  one 
general  steward  of  mission  goods,  his  wife  to  be  a  good  plain  cook;  one 
medical  man,  having  knowledge  of  chemistry  enough  to  regulate  indigo 
and  sugar-making.  All  the  attendants  to  be  married,  and  their  wives 
to  be  employed  in  sewing,  washing,  attending  the  sick,  etc.,  as  need 
requires.  The  missionaries  not  to  think  themselves  deserving  a  good 
English  wife  till  they  have  erected  a  comfortable  abode  for  her." 

In  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  this  year  (1860), 
certain  communications  were  read  which  tended  to  call  in 
question  Livingstone's  right  to  some  of  the  discoveries  he 
had  claimed  as  his  own.  Mr.  Macqueen,  through  whom 
these  communications  came,  must  have  had  peculiar 
notions  of  discovery,  for  some  time  before,  there  had 
appeared  in  the  Cape  papers  a  statement  of  his,  that  Lake 
'Ngami  of  1859  was  no  new  discovery,  as  Dr.  Livingstone 
had  visited  it  seven  years  before ;  and  Livingstone  had  to 
write  to  the  papers  in  favor  of  the  claims  of  Murray, 
Oswell,  and  Livingstone,  against  himself  I  It  had  been 
asserted  to  the  Society  by  Mr.  Macqueen,  that  Silva  Porto, 
a  Portuguese  trader,  had  shown  him  a  journal  describing 
a  journey  of  his  from  Benguela  on  the  west  to  Ibo  and 
Mozambique  on  the  east,  beginning  November  26,  1852, 
and    terminating   August,   1854.      Of   that   journal  Mr. 


GOING  HOME  WITH  THE  MAKOLOLO.        299 

Macqueen  read  a  copious  abstract  to  the  Society  (June  27, 
1859),  which  is  published  in  the  Journal  for  1860. 

In  a  letter  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  (20th  February, 
1861),  Livingstone,  while  exonerating  Mr.  Macqueen  of 
all  intention  of  misleading,  gives  his  reasons  for  doubting 
whether  the  journey  to  the  East  Coast  ever  took  place. 
He  had  met  Porto  at  Linyanti  in  1853,  and  subsequently 
at  Naliele,  the  Barotse  capital,  and  had  been  told  by  him 
that  he  had  tried  to  go  eastward,  but  had  been  obliged  to 
turn,  and  was  then  going  westward,  and  wished  him  to 
accompany  him,  which  he  declined,  as  he  was  a  slave- 
trader;  he  had  read  his  journal  as  it  appeared  in  the 
Loanda  "  Boletim,"  but  there  was  not  a  word  in  it  of  a 
journey  to  the  East  Coast ;  when  the  Portuguese  minister 
had  wished  to  find  a  rival  to  Dr.  Livingstone,  he  had 
brought  forward,  not  Porto,  as  he  would  naturally  have 
done  if  this  had  been  a  genuine  journey,  but  two  black 
men  who  came  to  Tette  in  1815;  in  the  Boletim  of  Mozam- 
bique there  was  no  word  of  the  arrival  of  Porto  there ;  in 
short,  the  part  of  the  journal  founded  on  could  not  have 
been  authentic.  Livingstone  felt  keenly  on  the  subject  of 
these  rumors,  not  on  his  own  account,  but  on  account  of 
the  Geographical  Society  and  of  Sir  Roderick  who  had 
introduced  him  to  it ;  for  nothing  could  have  given  him 
more  pain  than  that  either  of  these  should  have  had 
any  slur  thrown  on  them  through  him,  or  even  been 
placed  for  a  time  in  an  uncomfortable  position. 


300  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


chapteh  XIV. 

ROVOMA  AND   NY  ASS  A — UNIVERSITIES   MISSION. 
A.D.  1861-1862. 

Beginning  of  1861 — Arrival  of  the  "Pioneer" — and  of  the  agents  of  Uniyer- 
sities  Mission — Cordial  welcome — Livingstone's  catholic  feelings — Ordered 
to  explore  the  Rovuma — Bishop  Mackenzie  goes  with  him — Returns  to  the 
Shir6 — Turning-point  of  prosperity  past — Difficult  navigation — The  slave- 
sticks — Bishop  settles  at  Magomero — Hostilities  between  Manganja  and 
Ajawa — Attack  of  Mission  party  by  Ajawa — Livingstone's  advice  to  Bishop 
regarding  them — Letter  to  his  son  Robert — Livingstone,  Kirk,  and  Charles 
start  for  Lake  Nyassa — Party  robbed  at  north  of  Lake — Dismal  activity  of 
the  slave-trade — Awful  mortality  in  the  process — Livingstone's  fondness  for 
Punch — Letter  to  Mr.  Young — ^Joy  at  departure  of  new  steamer  •*  Lady 
Nyassa" — Colonization  project — Letter  against  it  from  Sir  R.  Murchison — 
Hears  of  Dr.  Stewart  coming  out  from  Free  Church  of  Scotland — Visit  at 
the  ship  from  Bishop  Mackenzie — News  of  defeat  of  Ajawa  by  missionaries 
—  Anxiety  of  Livingstone — Arrangements  for  "Pioneer"  to  go  to  Kongone 
for  new  steamer  and  friends  from  home,  then  go  to  Ruo  to  meet  Bishop — 
**  Pioneer"  detained — Dr.  Livingstone's  anxieties  and  depressions  at  New 
Year — "Pioneer'*  misses  man-of-war  "Gorgon" — At  length  "Gorgon" 
appears  with  brig  from  England  and  "Lady  Nyassa" — Mrs.  Livingstone 
and  other  ladies  on  board — Livingstone's  meeting  with  his  wife,  and  with 
Dr.  Stewart — Stewart's  recollections — Difficuhies  of  navigation — Captain 
"Wilson  of  "  Gorgon"  goes  up  river  and  hears  of  death  of  Bishop  Mackenzie 
and  Mr.  Burrup — Great  distress — Misrepresentations  about  Universities 
Mission — Miss  Mackenzie  and  Mr.  Burrup  taken  to  "  Gorgon" — Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Livingstone  return  to  Shupanga — Illness  and  death  of  Mrs.  Livingstone 
— Extracts  from  Livingstone's  Journal  and  letters  to  the  Moffats,  Agnes,  and 
the  Murchisons. 

The  beginning  of  1861  brought  some  new  features  on 
the  scene.  The  new  steamer,  the  "  Pioneer,"  at  last  arrived, 
and  was  a  great  improvement  on  the  "  Ma-Robert,"  though 
unfortunately  she  had  too  great  draught  of  water.  The 
agents  of  the  Universities  Missions  also  arrived,  the  first 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION.  301 

detachment  consisting  of  Bishop  Mackenzie  and  five  other 
Englishmen,  and  five  colored  men  from  the  Cape.  Writ- 
ing familiarly  to  his  friend  Moore,  apropos  of  his  new 
comrades  of  the  Church  Mission,  Livingstone  says:  "I 
have  never  felt  anyway  inclined  to  turn  Churchman  or 
dissenter  either  since  I  came  out  here.  The  feelings  which 
we  have  toward  difi*erent  sects  alter  out  here  quite  insen- 
sibly, till  one  looks  upon  all  godly  men  as  good  and  true 
brethren.  I  rejoiced  when  I  heard  that  so  many  good 
and  great  men  in  the  Universities  had  turned  their 
thoughts  toward  Africa,  and  feeling  sure  that  He  who 
nad  touched  their  hearts  would  lead  them  to  promote  his 
own  glory,  I  welcomed  the  men  they  sent  with  a  hearty, 
unfeigned  welcome." 

To  his  friend  Mr.  Maclear  he  wrote  that  he  was  very 
glad  the  Mission  was  to  be  under  a  bishop.  He  had  seen 
so  much  idleness  and  folly  result  from  missionaries  being 
left  to  themselves,  that  it  was  a  very  great  satisfaction  to 
find  that  the  new  mission  was  to  be  superintended  by  one 
authorized  and  qualified  to  take  the  charge.  Afterward 
when  he  came  to  know  Bishop  Mackenzie,  he  wrote  of 
him  to  Mr.  Maclear  in  the  highest  terms :  "  The  Bishop  is 
A  1,  and  in  his  readiness  to  put  his  hand  to  anything 
resembles  much  my  good  father-in-law  Moffat." 

It  is  not  often  that  missions  are  over-manned,  but  in  the 
first  stage  of  such  an  undertaking  as  this,  so  large  a  body 
of  men  was  an  incumbrance,  none  of  them  knowing  a 
word  of  the  language  or  a  bit  of  the  way.  It  was  Bishop 
Mackenzie's  desire  that  Dr.  Livingstone  should  accompany 
him  at  once  to  the  scene  of  his  future  labors  and  help  him 
to  settle.  But  besides  other  reasons,  the  "  Pioneer,"  as 
already  stated,  was  under  orders  to  explore  the  Rovuma, 
and,  as  the  Portuguese  put  so  many  obstacles  in  the  way 
on  the  Zambesi,  to  ascertain  whether  that  river  might  not 
afford  access  to  the  Nyassa  district.  It  was  at  last  arranged 
that  the  Bishop  should  first  go  with  the  Doctor  to  the 

26 


302  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Rovuma,  and  thereafter  they  should  all  go  together  to  the 
Shire.  In  waiting  for  Bishop  Mackenaie  to  accompany 
him,  Dr.  Livingstone  lost  the  most  favorable  part  of  the 
season,  and  found  that  he  could  not  get  with  the 
"Pioneer"  to  the  top  of  the  Rovuma.  He  might  have 
left  the  ship  and  pushed  forward  on  foot ;  but,  not  to  delay 
Bishop  Mackenzie,  he  left  the  Rovuma  in  the  meantime, 
intending,  after  making  arrangements  with  the  Bishop,  to 
go  to  Nyassa,  to  find  the  point  where  the  Rovuma  left  the 
lake,  if  there  were  such  a  point,  or,  if  not,  get  into  its 
headwaters  and  explore  it  downward. 

Dr.  Livingstone,  as  we  have  seen,  welcomed  the  Mission 
right  cordially,  for  indeed  it  was  what  he  had  been  most 
eagerly  praying  for,  and  he  believed  that  it  would  be  the 
beginning  of  all  blessing  to  Eastern  and  Central  Africa, 
and  help  to  assimilate  the  condition  of  the  East  Coast  to 
that  of  the  West.  The  field  for  the  cultivation  of  cotton 
which  he  had  discovered  along  the  Shire  and  Lake  Nyassa 
was  immense,  above  400  miles  in  length,  and  now  it 
seemed  as  if  commerce  and  Christianity  were  going  to  take 
possession  of  it.  But  it  was  found  that  the  turning-point 
of  prosperity  had  been  reached,  and  it  was  his  lot  to  en- 
counter dark  reverses.  The  navigation  of  the  Shire  wag 
difificult,  for  the  "  Pioneer "  being  deep  in  the  water  would 
often  run  aground.  On  these  occasions  the  Bishop,  Mr. 
Scudamore,  and  Mr.  Waller,  the  best  and  the  bravest  of 
the  missionary  party,  were  ever  ready  with  their  help  in 
hauling.  Livingstone  was  sometimes  scandalized  to  see 
the  Bishop  toiling  in  the  hot  sun,  while  some  of  his  sub- 
ordinates were  reading  or  writing  in  the  cabin.  As  they 
proceeded  up  the  Shire  it  was  seen  that  the  promises  of 
assistance  from  the  Portuguese  Government  were  worse 
than  fruitless.  Evidently  the  Portuguese  traders  were 
pushing  the  slave-trade  with  greater  eagerness  than  ever. 
Blave-hunting  chiefs  were  marauding  the  country,  driving 
peaceful  inhabitants  before  them,  destroying  their  crops, 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION,  303 

seizing  on  all  the  people  they  could  lay  hands  on,  and 
selling  them  as  slaves.  The  contrast  to  what  Livingstone 
had  seen  on  his  last  journey  was  lamentable.  All  their 
prospects  were  overcast.  How  could  commerce  or  Christi- 
anity flourish  in  countries  desolated  by  war? 

Every  reader  of  The  Zambesi  and  its  Tributaries  remem- 
bers the  frightful  picture  of  the  slave-sticks,  and  the  row 
of  men,  women,  and  children  whom  Livingstone  and  his 
companions  set  free.  Nothing  helped  more  than  this 
picture  to  rouse  in  English  bosoms  an  intense  horror  of 
the  trade,  and  a  burning  sympathy  with  Livingstone  and 
his  friends.  Livingstone  and  the  Bishop,  with  his  party, 
had  gone  up  the  Shire  to  Chibisa's,  and  were  halting  at 
the  village  of  Mbame,  when  a  slave  party  came  along. 
The  flight  of  the  drivers,  the  liberation  of  eighty-four  men 
and  women,  and  their  reception  by  the  good  Bishop  under 
his  charge,  speedily  followed.  The  aggressors  were  the 
neighboring  warlike  tribe  of  Ajawa,  and  their  victims  were 
the  Manganja,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Shire  Valley.  The 
Bishop  accepted  the  invitation  of  Chigunda,  a  Manganja 
chief,  to  settle  at  Magomero.  It  was  thought,  however, 
desirable  for  the  Bishop  and  Livingstone  first  to  visit  the 
Ajawa  chief,  and  try  to  turn  him  from  his  murderous  ways. 
The  road  was  frightful — through  burning  villages  resound- 
ing with  the  wailings  of  women  and  the  shouts  of  the 
warriors.  The  Ajawa  received  the  offered  visit  in  a  hostile 
spirit,  and  the  shout  being  raised  that  Chibisa  had  come — 
a  powerful  chief  with  the  reputation  of  being  a  sorcerer — 
they  fired  on  the  Bishop's  party  and  compelled  them,  in 
self-defense,  to  fire  in  return.  It  was  the  first  time  that 
Livingstone  had  ever  been  so  attacked  by  natives,  often 
though  they  had  threatened  him.  It  was  the  first  time  he 
had  had  to  repel  an  attack  with  violence ;  so  little  was  he 
thinking  of  such  a  thing  that  he  had  not  his  rifle  with 
him,  and  was  obliged  to  borrow  a  revolver.  The  encounter 
was  hot  and  serious,  but  it  ended  in  thf  Ajawa  being 
feiven  ofif*  without  loss  on  the  other  side. 


304  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

It  now  became  a  question  for  the  Bishop  in  what  relation 
he  and  his  party  were  to  stand  to  these  murderous  and 
marauding  Ajawa — whether  they  should  quietly  witness 
their  onslaughts  or  drive  them  from  the  country  and  rescue 
the  captive  Manganja.  Livingstone's  advice  to  them  was 
to  be  patient,  and  to  avoid  taking  part  in  the  quarrels  of 
the  natives.  He  then  left  them  at  Magomero,  and  returned 
to  his  companions  on  the  Shire.  For  a  time  the  Bishop's 
party  followed  Livingstone's  advice,  but  circumstances 
afterward  occurred  which  constrained  them  to  take  a 
different  course,  and  led  to  very  serious  results  in  the 
history  of  the  Mission. 

Writing  to  his  son  Robert,  Livingstone  thus  describes 
the  atttack  made  by  the  Ajawa  on  him,  the  Bishop,  and 
the  missionaries : 

**  The  elave-hunters  had  induced  a  number  of  another  tribe  to  capture 
people  for  them.  We  came  to  this  tribe  while  burning  three  villages, 
and  though  we  told  them  that  we  came  peaceably,  and  to  talk  with 
them,  they  saw  that  we  were  a  small  party,  and  might  easily  be  over- 
come, rushed  at  us  and  shot  their  poisoned  arrows.  One  fell  between 
the  Bishop  and  me,  and  another  whizzed  between  another  man  and  me. 
We  had  to  drive  them  off,  and  they  left  that  part  of  the  country.  Be- 
fore going  near  them  the  Bishop  engaged  in  prayer,  and  during  the 
prayer  we  could  hear  the  wail  for  the  dead  by  some  Manganja  probably 
thought  not  worth  killing,  and  the  shouts  of  welcome  home  to  these 
bloody  murderers.  It  turned  out  that  they  were  only  some  sixty  or 
seventy  robbers,  and  not  the  Ajawa  tribe  j  so  we  had  a  narrow  escape 
from  being  murdered. 

'How  are  you  doing?  I  fear  from  what  I  have  observed  of  your 
temperament  that  you  will  have  to  strive  against  fickleness.  Every  one 
has  his  besetting  fault — that  is  no  disgrace  to  him,  but  it  is  a  disgrace 
if  he  do  not  find  it  out,  and  by  God's  grace  overcome  it.  I  am  not  near 
to  advise  you  what  to  do,  but  whatever  line  of  life  you  choose,  resolve 
to  stick  to  it,  and  serve  God  therein  to  the  last.  Whatever  fjailings  you 
are  conscious  of,  tell  them  to  your  hc:vvenly  Father;  strive  daily  to 
master  them  and  confess  all  to  Him  when  conscious  of  having  gone 
astray.  And  may  the  good  Lord  of  all  impart  all  the  strength  you 
need.  Commit  your  way  unto  the  Lord  ;  trust  also  in  Him.  Acknowl- 
edge Him  in  all  your  ways,  and  He  will  bless  you." 


BOVUMA  AND  NYASSA,  305 

Leaving  the  "  Pioneer  "  at  Chibisa's,  on  Gth  August,  1861, 
Livingstone,  accompanied  by  his  brother  and  Dr.  Kirk, 
started  for  Nyassa  with  a  four-oared  boat,  which  was  car- 
ried by  porters  past  the  Murchison  Cataracts.  On  23d 
September  they  sailed  into  Lake  Nyassa,  naming  the  grand 
mountainous  promontory  at  the  end  Cape  Maclear,  after 
Livingstone's  great  friend  the  Astronomer-Royal  at  the  Cape. 

All  about  the  lake  was  now  examined  w^ith  earnest  eyes. 
The  population  was  denser  than  he  had  seen  anywhere 
else.  The  people  were  civil,  and  even  friendly,  but  un- 
doubtedly they  were  not  handsome.  At  the  north  of  the 
lake  they  were  lawless,  and  at  one  point  the  party  were 
robbed  in  the  night — the  first  time  such  a  thing  had 
occurred  in  Livingstone's  African  life.^     Of  elephants  ther© 

^  In  TAe  Zambesi  and  its  Tributaries^  Livingstone  gives  a  grave  account  of 
the  robbery.  In  his  letters  to  his  friends  he  makes  fun  of  it,  as  he  did  of  the 
raid  of  the  Boers.  To  Mr.  F.  Fitch  he  writes :  **  You  think  I  cannot  get  into 
a.  scrape.  .  .  .  For  the  first  time  in  Africa  we  were  robbed.  Expert 
tnieves  crept  into  our  sleeping-places,  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and 
made  off  with  what  they  could  lay  their  hands  on.  Sheer  over-modesty  ruined 
me.  It  was  Sunday,  and  such  a  black  mass  swarmed  around  our  sail,  which 
we  used  as  a  hut,  that  we  could  not  hear  prayers.  I  had  before  slipped  away 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  dress  for  church,  but  seeing  a  crowd  of  women  watching 
me  through  the  reeds,  I  did  not  change  my  old  *  unmentionables,' — they  were 
so  old,  I  had  serious  thoughts  of  converting  them  into — charity!  Next  morn- 
ing early  all  our  spare  clothing  was  walked  off  with,  and  there  I  was  left  by 
my  modesty  nearly  through  at  the  knees,  and  no  change  of  shirt,  flannel,  or 
stockings.  After  that,  don't  say  that  I  can't  get  into  a  scrape  I"  The  same 
letter  thanks  Mr.  Fitch  for  sending  him  Punch,  whom  he  deemed  a  sound 
divine !  On  the  same  subject  he  wrote  at  another  time,  regretting  that  Punch 
did  not  reach  him,  especially  a  number  in  which  notice  was  taken  of  himself. 
"  It  never  came.  Who  the  miscreants  are  that  steal  them  I  cannot  divine, 
I  would  not  grudge  them  a  reading  if  they  would  only  send  them  on  afterward. 
Perhaps  binding  the  whole  year's  Punches  would  be  the  best  plan;  and  then 
we  need  not  label  it  *  Sermons  in  Lent,'  or  *  Tracts  on  Homoeopathy,'  but  you 
may  write  inside,  as  Dr.  Buckland  did  on  his  umbrella,  *  Stolen  from  Dr. 
Livingstone.'  We  really  enjoy  them  very  much.  They  are  good  against  fever. 
The  *  Essence  of  Parliament,'  for  instance,  is  capital.  One  has  to  wadt 
through  an  ocean  of  paper  to  get  the  same  information,  without  any  of  the  fun« 
And  by  the  time  the  newspapers  have  reached  us,  most  of  the  interest  in  public 
matters  has  evaporated. 


306  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

was  a  great  abundance, — indeed  of  all  animal  and  vege- 
table life. 

But  the  lake  slave-trade  was  going  on  at  a  dismal  rate. 
An  Arab  dhow  was  seen  on  the  lake,  but  it  kept  well  out 
of  the  way.  Dr.  Livingstone  was  informed  by  Colonel 
Rigdy,  late  British  Consul  at  Zanzibar,  that  19,000  slaves 
from  this  Nyassa  region  alone  passed  annually  through 
the  custom-house  there.  This  was  besides  those  landed  at 
Portuguese  slave  ports.  In  addition  to  those  captured, 
thousands  were  killed  or  died  of  their  wounds  or  of  famine, 
or  perished  in  other  ways,  so  that  not  one-fifth  of  the 
victims  became  slaves — in  the  Nyassa  district  probably  not 
one-tenth.  A  small  armed  steamer  on  the  lake  might  stop 
nearly  the  whole  of  this  wholesale  robbery  and  murder. 

Their  stock  of  goods  being  exhausted,  and  no  provisions 
being  procurable,  the  party  had  to  return  at  the  end  of 
October.  They  had  to  abandon  the  project  of  getting  from 
the  lake  to  the  Kovuma,  and  exploring  eastward.  They 
reached  the  ship  on  8th  November,  1861,  having  suffered 
more  from  hunger  than  on  any  previous  trip. 

In  writing  to  his  friend  Young,  28th  November,  1861, 
Livingstone  expresses  his  joy  at  the  news  of  the  departure 
of  the  "Lady  Nyassa ; "  gives  him  an  account  of  the  lake,  and 
of  a  terrific  storm  in  which  they  were  nearly  lost ;  describes 
the  inhabitants,  and  the  terrible  slave-trade — the  only 
trade  that  was  carried  on  in  the  district.  It  will  take  them 
the  best  part  of  a  year  to  put  the  ship  on  the  lake,  but  it 
will  be  such  a  blessing  I  He  hopes  the  Government  will 
pay  for  it,  once  it  is  there. 

The  colonization  project  had  not  commended  itself  to 
Sir  R.  Murchison.  He  had  written  of  it  sometime  before : 
**Your  colonization  scheme  does  not  meet  with  supporters, 
it  being  thought  that  you  must  have  much  more  hold  on 
the  country  before  you  attract  Scotch  families  to  emigrate 
and  settle  there,  and  then  die  off,  or  become  a  burden  to 
you  and  all  concerned,  like  the  settlers  of  old  at  Darien/* 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION,  307 

It  was  with  much  satisfaction  that  Livingstone  now  wrote 
to  his  friend  (25th  November,  1861) :  "  A  Dr.  Stewart  is 
sent  out  by  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  to  confer  with  me 
about  a  Scotch  Colony.  You  will  guess  my  answer.  Dr. 
Kirk  is  with  me  in  opinion,  and  if  I  could  only  get  you 
out  to  take  a  trip  up  to  the  plateau  of  Zomba,  and  over  the 
uplands  which  surround  Lake  Nyassa,  you  would  give  in 
too.*' 

When  the  party  returned  to  the  ship  they  had  a  visit 
from  Bishop  Mackenzie,  who  was  in  good  spirits  and  had 
excellent  hopes  of  the  Mission.  The  Ajawa  had  been 
defeated,  and  had  professed  a  desire  to  be  at  peace  with  the 
English.  But  Dr.  Livingstone  was  not  without  misgivings 
on  this  point.  The  details  of  the  defeat  of  the  Ajawa,  in 
which  the  missionaries  had  taken  an  active  part,  troubled 
him,  as  we  find  from  his  private  Journal.  "  The  Bishop," 
he  says  (14th  of  November),  "  takes  a  totally  different  view 
of  the  affair  from  what  I  do."  There  were  other  points  on 
which  the  utter  inexperience  of  the  missionaries,  and  want 
of  skill  in  dealing  with  the  natives,  gave  him  serious 
anxiety.  It  is  impossible  not  to  see  that  even  thus  early, 
the  Mission,  in  Livingstone's  eyes,  had  lost  something  of 
its  bloom. 

It  was  arranged  that  the  "Pioneer"  should  go  down  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi,  to  meet  a  man-of-war  with  pro- 
visions, and  bring  up  the  pieces  of  the  new  lake  vessel, 
the  "  Lady  Nyassa,"  which  was  eagerly  expected,  along 
with  Mrs.  Livingstone,  Miss  Mackenzie,  the  Bishop's  sister, 
and  other  members  of  the  Mission  party.  An  appoint- 
ment was  made  for  January  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Ruo, 
a  tributary  of  the  Shire,  where  the  Bishop  was  to  meet 
them.  He  and  Mr.  Burrup,  who  had  just  arrived,  were 
meanwhile  to  explore  the  neighboring  country. 

The  "  Pioneer"  was  detained  for  five  weeks  on  a  shoal 
twenty  miles  below  Chibisa's,  and  here  the  first  death 
occurred — the  carpenter's  mate  succumbed  to  fever.     It 


308  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

was  extremely  irksome  to  suffer  this  long  detention,  to 
think  of  tuel  and  provisions  wasting,  and  salaries  running 
^)n,  without  one  particle  of  progress.  Livingstone  was 
sensitive  and  anxious.  He  speaks  in  his  Journal  of  the 
difficulty  of  feeling  resigned  to  the  Divine  will  in  all 
things,  and  of  believing  that  all  things  work  together  for 
good  to  those  that  love  God.  He  seems  to  have  been 
troubled  at  what  had  been  said  in  some  quarters  of  his 
treatment  of  members  of  the  Expedition.  In  private 
letters,  in  the  Cape  papers,  in  the  home  papers,  unfavorable 
representations  of  his  conduct  had  been  made.  In  one 
case,  a  prosecution  at  law  had  been  threatened.  On  New 
Year's  Day,  1862,  he  entered  in  his  Journal  an  elaborate 
minute,  as  if  for  future  use,  bearing  on  the  conduct  of  the 
Expedition.  He  refers  to  the  difficulty  to  which  civil  ex- 
peditions are  exposed,  as  compared  with  naval  and  mili- 
tary, in  the  matter  of  discipline,  owing  to  the  inferior 
authority  and  power  of  the  chief  In  the  countries  visited 
there  is  no  enlightened  public  opinion  to  support  the  com- 
mander, and  newspapers  at  home  are  but  too  ready  to  be- 
lieve in  his  tyranny,  and  make  themselves  the  champions 
of  any  dawdling  fellow  who  would  fain  be  counted  a 
victim  of  his  despotism.  He  enumerates  the  chief  troubles 
to  which  his  Expedition  had  been  exposed  from  such 
causes.  Then  he  explains  how,  at  the  beginning,  to  pre- 
vent collision,  he  had  made  every  man  independent  in  his 
own  department,  wishing  only,  for  himself,  to  be  the 
means  of  making  known  to  the  world  what  each  man  had 
done.  His  conclusion  is  a  sad  one,  but  it  explains  why  in 
his  last  journeys  he  went  alone :  he  is  convinced  that  if 
he  had  been  by  himself  he  would  have  accomplished 
more,  and  undoubtedly  he  would  have  received  more  of 
the  approbation  of  his  countrymen.* 

'  Notwithstanding  this  expression  of  feeling,  Dr.  Livingstone  was  very  sincere 
in  his  handsome  acknowledgments,  in  the  Introduction  to  The  Zambesi  and  its 
Tribtdaries,  of  valuable  services,  especially  from  the  members  of  the  £xpe« 
dition  there  named. 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION.  309 

At  length  the  "  Pioneer"  was  got  off  the  bank,  and  on 
the  11th  January,  1862,  they  entered  the  Zambesi.  They 
proceeded  to  the  great  Luabo  mouth,  as  being  more 
advantageous  than  the  Kongone  for  a  supply  of  wood. 
They  were  a  month  behind  their  appointment,  and  no  ship 
was  to  be  seen.  The  ship  had  been  there,  it  turned  out, 
on  the  8th  January,  had  looked  eagerly  for  the  "  Pioneer," 
had  fancied  it  saw  the  black  funnel  and  its  smoke  in  the 
river,  and  being  disappointed  had  made  for  Mozambique, 
been  caught  in  a  gale,  and  was  unable  to  return  for  three 
weeks.  Livingstone's  letters  show  him  a  little  out  of  sorts 
at  the  manifold  obstructions  that  had  always  been  making 
him  "too  late" — "too  late  for  Povuma  below,  too  late  for 
Povuma  above,  and  now  too  late  for  our  own  appoint- 
ment," but  in  greater  trouble  because  the  "  Lady  Nyassa" 
had  not  been  sent  by  sea,  as  he  had  strongly  urged,  and 
as  it  afterward  appeared  might  have  been  done  quite  well. 
To  take  out  the  pieces  and  fit  them  up  would  involve 
heavy  expense  and  long  delay,  and  perhaps  the  season 
would  be  lost  again.  But  Livingstone  had  always  a  saving 
clause,  in  all  his  lamentations,  and  here  it  is:  "I  know 
that  all  was  done  for  the  best." 

At  length,  on  the  last  day  of  January,  H.M.S.  *'  Gorgon," 
with  a  brig  in  tow,  hove  in  sight,  ^¥hen  the  "Pioneer" 
was  seen,  up  went  the  signal  from  the  "  Gorgon" — "  I  have 
steamboat  in  the  brig";  to  which  Livingstone  replied — 
"Welcome  news."  Then  "Wife  aboard"  was  signaled 
from  the  ship.  "  Accept  my  best  thanks"  concluded  what 
Livingstone  called  "  the  most  interesting  conversation  he 
had  engaged  in  for  many  a  day."  Next  morning  the 
"  Pioneer"  steamed  out,  and  Dr.  Livingstone  found  his 
wife  "  all  right."  In  the  same  ship  with  Mrs.  Livingstone, 
besides  Miss  Mackenzie  and  Mrs.  Burrup,  the  Pev.  E. 
Hawkins  and  others  of  the  Universities  Mission,  had  come 
the  Pev.  James  Stewart,  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
(now  Dr.  Stewart,  of  Lovedale,  South  Africa),  who  had 


310  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

been  sent  out  by  a  committee  of  that  Church,  "  to  meet 
with  Dr.  Livingstone,  and  obtain,  by  personal  observation 
and  otherwise,  the  information  that  might  be  necessary  to 
enable  a  committee  at  home  to  form  a  correct  judgment  as 
to  the  possibility  of  founding  a  mission  in  that  part  of 
Africa."  It  happened  that  some  time  before  Mr.  Stewart 
had  been  tutor  to  Thomas  Livingstone,  while  studying  in 
Glasgow;  this  drew  his  sympathies  to  Livingstone  and 
Africa,  and  was  another  link  in  that  wonderful  chain 
which  Providence  was  making  for  the  good  of  Africa. 
From  Dr.  Stewart's  "  Recollections  of  Dr.  Livingstone  and 
the  Zambesi"  in  the  Sunday  Magazine  (November,  1874), 
we  get  the  picture  from  the  other  side.  First,  the  sad 
disappointment  of  Mrs.  Livingstone  on  the  8th  January, 
when  no  "  Pioneer"  was  to  be  found,  with  the  anxious 
speculations  raised  in  its  absence  as  to  the  cause.  Then 
a  frightful  tornado  on  the  way  to  Mozambique,  and  the 
all  but  miraculous  escape  of  the  brig.  Then  the  return  to 
the  Zambesi  in  company  with  H.M.S.  "  Gorgon,"  and  on 
the  1st  of  February,  in  a  lovely  morning,  the  little  cloud 
of  smoke  rising  close  to  land,  and  afterward  the  white 
hull  of  a  small  paddle  steamer  making  straight  for  the 
two  ships  outside. 

"  As  the  ressel  approached,"  says  Dr.  Stewart,  "  I  could  make  out 
with  a  glass  a  firmly  built  man  of  about  the  middle  height,  standing 
on  the  port  paddle-box,  and  directing  the  ship's  course.  He  was  not 
exactly  dressed  as  a  naval  officer,  but  he  wore  that  gold-laced  cap  which 
has  since  become  so  well  known  both  at  home  and  in  Africa.  This 
was  Dr.  Livingstone,  and  I  said  to  his  wife,  *  There  he  is  at  last."  She 
looked  brighter  at  this  announcement  than  I  had  seen  her  do  any  day 
for  seven  months  before." 

Through  the  help  of  the  men  of  the  "Gorgon,"  the 
sections  of  the  "  Lady  Nyassa"  were  speedily  put  on  board 
the  "Pioneer,"  and  on  the  10th  February  the  vessel  steamed 
off  for  the  mouth  of  the  Ruo,  to  meet  the  Bishop.  But 
its  progress  through  the  river  was  miserable.  Says  Dr. 
Stewart : 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION,  311 

"  For  ten  days  we  were  chiefly  occupied  in  sailing  or  hauling  the 
ship  through  sand-banks.  The  steamer  was  drawing  between  five  and 
six  feet  of  water,  and  though  there  were  long  reaches  in  the  river  with 
depth  sufficient  for  a  ship  of  larger  draught,  yet  every  now  and  then 
we  found  ourselves  in  shoal  water  of  about  three  feet.  No  sooner  was 
the  boat  got  off  one  bank  by  might  and  main,  and  steady  hauling  on 
capstan  and  anchor  laid  out  ahead,  almost  never  astern,  and  we  got  a 
few  miles  of  fair  steering,  than  again  we  heard  that  sound,  abhorred 
by  all  of  us — a  slight  bump  of  the  bow,  and  rush  of  sand  along  the 
ship's  side,  and  we  were  again  fast  for  a  few  hours,  or  a  day  or  two,  as 
the  case  might  be." 

The  "  Pioneer"  was  overladen,  and  the  plan  had  to  be 
changed.  It  was  resolved  to  put  the  "  Lady  Nyassa" 
together  at  Shupanga,  and  tow  her  up  to  the  Eapids. 

"The  detention,"  says  Dr.  Stewart,  "was  very  trying  to  Dr.  Living- 
atone,  as  it  meant  not  a  few  weeks,  but  the  loss  of  a  year,  inasmuch 
as  by  the  time  the  ship  was  ready  to  be  launched  the  river  would  be 
nearly  at  its  lowest,  and  there  would  be  no  resource  but  to  wait  for  the 
next  rainy  season.  Yet,  in  the  face  of  discouragement,  he  maintained 
his  cheerfulness,  and,  after  sunset,  still  enjoyed  many  an  hour  of  pro- 
longed talk  about  current  events  at  home,  about  his  old  College  days  in 
Glasgow,  and  about  many  of  those  who  were  unknown  men  then,  but 
have  since  made  their  mark  in  life  in  the  different  paths  they  have 
taken.  Amongst  others  his  old  friend  Mr.  Young,  of  Kelly,  or  Sir 
Parafifin,  as  he  used  subsequently  to  call  him,  came  in  for  a  large  share 
of  the  conversation." 

Meanwhile  Captain  Wilson  (of  the  "  Gorgon"),  accom- 
panied by  Dr.  Kirk  and  others,  had  gone  on  in  boats  with 
Miss  Mackenzie  and  Mrs.  Burrup,  and  learned  the  sad 
fate  of  the  Bishop  and  Mr.  Burrup.  It  appeared  that  the 
Bishop,  accompanied  by  the  Makololo,  had  gone  forth  on 
an  expedition  to  rescue  the  captive  husbands  of  some  of 
the  Manganja  women,  and  had  been  successful.  But  as 
the  Bishop  was  trying  to  get  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ruo, 
his  canoe  was  upset,  his  medicines  and  cordials  were  lost, 
and,  being  seized  with  fever,  after  languishing  for  some 
time,  he  died  in  distressing  circumstances,  on  the  Slst 
January.     Mr.  Burrup,  who  was  with  him,  and  wlio  was 


312  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

also  stricken,  was  carried  back  to  Magomero,  and  died  in 
a  few  days. 

Captain  Wilson,  who  had  himself  been  prostrated  by 
fever,  and  made  a  narrow  escape,  returned  with  this  sad 
news,  three  weeks  after  he  had  left  Shupanga,  bringing 
the  two  broken-hearted  ladies,  who  had  expected  to  be 
welcomed,  the  one  by  her  brother,  the  other  by  her 
husband.     It  was  a  great  blow  to  Livingstone. 

''  It  was  difficult  to  say,"  writes  Dr.  Stewart,  "  whether  he  or  the 
unhappy  ladies,  on  whom  the  blow  fell  with  the  most  personal  weight, 
were  most  to  be  pitied.  He  felt  the  responsibility,  and  saw  the  wide- 
spread dismay  which  the  news  would  occasion  when  it  reached  England, 
and  at  the  very  time  when  the  Mission  most  needed  support.  'This 
will  hurt  us  all,'  he  said,  as  he  sat  resting  his  head  on  his  hand,  on  the 
table  of  the  dimly-lighted  little  cabin  of  the  '  Pioneer.'  His  esteem  for 
Bishop  Mackenzie  was  afterward  expressed  in  this  way  :  '  For  unselfisb 
goodness  of  heart  and  earnest  devotion  to  the  work  he  had  undertaken, 
it  can  safely  be  said  that  none  of  the  commendations  of  his  friends  can 
exceed  the  reality.'  He  did  what  he  could,  I  believe,  to  comfort  those 
who  were  so  unexpectedly  bereaved  j  but  the  night  he  spent  must  have 
been  an  uneasy  one." 

Livingstone  says  in  his  book  that  the  unfavorable  judg- 
ment which  he  had  formed  of  the  Bishop's  conduct  in 
fighting  with  the  Ajawa  was  somewhat  modified  by  a 
natural  instinct,  when  he  saw  how  keenly  the  Bishop  was 
run  down  for  it  in  England,  and  reflected  more  on  the 
circumstances,  and  thought  how  excellent  a  man  he  was. 
Sometimes  he  even  said  that,  had  he  been  there,  he  would 
probably  have  done  what  the  Bishop  did.^  Why,  then, 
it  may  be  asked,  was  Livingstone  so  ill-pleased  when  it 
was  said  that  all  that  the  Bishop  had  done  was  done  by 

1  Writing  to  Mr.  Waller,  12th  February,  1863,  Dr.  Livingstone  said:  "I 
thought  you  wrong  in  attacking  the  Ajawa,  till  I  looked  on  it  as  defense  of  your 
orphans.  I  thought  that  you  had  shut  yourselves  up  to  one  tribe,  and  that,  the 
Manganja;  but  I  think  difiFerently  now,  and  only  wish  they  would  send  out  Dr. 
Pusey  here.  He  would  learn  a  little  sense,  of  which  I  suppose  I  have  need 
myselL" 


i 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION,  313 

his  advice?  ITo  one  will  ask  this  question  who  reads  the 
terms  of  a  letter  by  Mr.  Rowley,  one  of  the  Mission  party, 
first  published  in  the  Cape  papers,  and  copied  into  the 
Times  in  November,  1862.  It  was  said  there  that  "  from 
the  moment  when  Livingstone  commenced  the  release  of 
slaves,  his  course  was  one  of  aggression.  He  hunted  for 
slaving  parties  in  every  direction,  and  when  he  heard  of 
the  Ajawa  making  slaves  in  order  to  sell  to  the  slavers, 
he  went  designedly  in  search  of  them,  and  intended  to 
take  their  captives  from  them  by  force  if  needful.  It  is 
true  that  when  he  came  upon  them  he  found  them  to  be 
a  more  powerful  body  than  he  expected,  and  had  they  not 
fired  first,  he  might  have  withdrawn.  .  ,  .  His  parting 
words  to  the  chiefs  just  before  he  left  .  .  .  were  to 
this  efiPect:  'You  have  hitherto  seen  us  only  as  fighting 
men,  but  it  is  not  in  such  a  character  we  wish  you  to  know 
us.' "  ^  How  could  Livingstone  be  otherwise  than  indig- 
nant to  be  spoken  of  as  if  the  use  of  force  had  been  his 
habit,  while  the  whole  tenor  of  his  life  had  gone  most 
wonderfully  to  show  the  efficacy  of  gentle  and  brotherly 
treatment?  How  could  he  but  be  vexed  at  having  the 
odium  of  the  whole  proceedings  thrown  on  him,  when  his 
last  advice  to  the  missionaries  had  been  disregarded  by 
them?  Or  how  could  he  fail  to  be  concerned  at  the  dis- 
credit which  the  course  ascribed  to  him  must  bring  upon 
the  Expedition  under  his  command,  which  was  entirely 
separate  from  the  Mission  ?  It  was  the  unhandsome  treat- 
ment of  himself  and  reckless  periling  of  the  character 
and  interests  of  his  Expedition  in  order  to  shield  others, 
that  raised  his  indignation.  "  Good  Bishop  Mackenzie," 
he  wrote  to  his  friend  Mr.  Fitch,  "  would  never  have  tried 
to  screen  himself  by  accusing  me."  In  point  of  fact,  a 
few  years  afterward  the  Portuguese  Government,  through 

1  Mr.  Rowley  afterward  (February  22,  1865)  expressed  his  regret  that  this 
letter  was  ever  written,  as  it  had  produced  an  ill-effect.  See  The  Zambesi  and 
its  Tributaries,  p.  475  note. 

27 


314  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Mr.  Lacerda,  when  complaining  bitterly  of  the  statements 
of  Livingstone  in  a  speech  at  Bath,  in  1865,  referred  to 
Mr.  Rowley's  letter  as  bearing  out  their  complaint.  It 
served  admirably  to  give  an  up  favorable  view  of  his  aims 
and  methods,  as  from  one  of  h  is  own  allies.  Dr.  Living- 
stone never  allowed  himself  to  cherish  any  other  feeling 
but  that  of  high  regard  for  th*'  self-denial  and  Christian 
heroism  of  the  Bishop,  and  muny  of  his  coadjutors;  but 
he  did  feel  that  most  of  them  were  ill-adapted  for  their 
work  and  had  a  great  deal  to  l*)arn,  and  that  the  manner 
in  which  he  had  been  turned  aside  from  the  direct  objects 
of  his  own  enterprise  by  having  to  look  after  so  many 
inexperienced  men,  and  then  blamed  for  what  he  depre- 
cated, and  what  was  done  in  his  absence,  was  rather  more 
than  it  was  reasonable  for  him  to  bear.^ 

Writing  of  the  terrible  loss  of  Mackenzie  and  Burrup 
to  the  Bishop  of  Cape  Town,  Livingstone  says :  "  The  blow 
is  quite  bewildering;  the  two  strongest  men  so  quickly 
cut  down,  and  one  of  them,  humanly  speaking,  indispen- 
sable to  the  success  of  the  enterprise.  We  must  bow  to 
the  will  of  Him  who  doeth  all  things  well ;  but  I  cannot 
help  feeling  sadly  disturbed  in  view  of  the  effect  the  news 
may  have  at  home.     /  shall  not  swerve  a  hairbreadth  from 

*  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  letter  of  Mr.  Rowley  expressed  the  mind 
of  his  brethren.  Some  of  them  were  greatly  annoyed  at  it,  and  used  their 
influence  to  induce  its  author  to  write  to  the  Cape  papers  that  he  had  conveyed 
a  wrong  impression.  In  writing  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  (20th  November, 
1862),  after  seeing  Rowley's  letter  in  the  Cape  papers,  Dr.  Livingstone  said: 
•*  It  is  untrue  that  I  ever  on  any  one  occasion  adopted  an  aggressive  policy 
against  the  Ajawa,  or  took  slaves  from  them.  Slaves  were  taken  from 
Portuguese  alone.  I  never  hunted  the  Ajawa,  or  took  the  part  of  Manganja 
against  Ajawa.  In  this  I  believe  every  member  of  the  Mission  will  supp>ort 
my  assertion."  '  Livingstone  declined  to  write  a  contradiction  /a  the  public 
prints,  because  he  knew  the  harm  that  would  be  done  by  a  charge  against  a 
clergyman.  In  this  he  showed  the  same  magnanimity  and  high  Christian  self- 
denial  which  he  had  shown  when  he  left  Mabotsa.  It  was  only  when  the 
Portuguese  claimed  the  benefit  of  Rowley's  testimony  that  he  let  the  public  sm 
what  its  value  was. 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION,  315 

Vfiy  work  while  life  is  spared,  and  I  trust  the  supporters  of 
the  Mission  may  not  shrink  back  from  all  that  they  have 
set  their  hearts  to." 

The  next  few  weeks  were  employed  in  taking  Miss 
Mackenzie  and  Mrs.  Burrup  to  the  "  Gorgon"  on  their  way 
home.  It  was  a  painful  voyage  to  all — to  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Livingstone,  to  Miss  Mackenzie  and  Mrs.  Burrup,  and  last, 
not  least,  to  Captain  Wilson,  who  had  been  separated  so 
long  from  his  ship,  and  had  risked  life,  position,  and  every- 
thing, to  do  service  to  a  cause  which  in  spite  of  all  he  left 
at  a  much  lower  ebb. 

When  the  "  Pioneer"  arrived  at  the  bar,  it  was  found 
that  owing  to  the  weather  the  ship  had  been  forced  to  leave 
the  coast,  and  she  did  not  return  for  a  fortnight.  There 
was  thus  another  long  waiting  from  17th  March  to  2d 
April.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Livingstone  then  returned  to  Shu- 
panga.  The  long  detention  in  the  most  unhealthy  season 
of  the  year,  and  when  fever  was  at  its  height,  was  a  sad, 
sad  calamity. 

We  are  now  arrived  at  the  last  illness  and  the  death  of 
Mrs.  Livingstone.  After  she  had  parted  from  her  husband 
at  the  Cape  in  the  spring  of  1858,  she  returned  with  her 
parents  to  Kuruman,  and  in  November  gave  birth  there  to 
her  youngest  child,  Anna  Mary.  Thereafter  she  returned 
to  Scotland  to  be  near  her  other  children.  Some  of  them 
were  at  school.  No  comfortable  home  for  them  all  could 
be  formed,  and  though  many  friends  were  kind,  the  time 
was  not  a  happy  one.  Mrs.  Livingstone's  desire  to  be  with 
her  husband  was  intense;  not  only  the  longings  of  an 
affectionate  heart,  and  the  necessity  of  taking  counsel  with 
him  about  the  family,  but  the  feeling  that  when  over- 
shadowed by  one  whose  faith  was  so  strong  her  fluttering 
heart  would  regain  its  steady  tone,  and  she  would  be  better 
able  to  help  both  him  and  the  children,  gave  vehemence 
to  this  desire.  Her  letters  to  her  husband  tell  of  much 
spiritual  darkness ;  his  replies  were  the  very  soul  of  tender- 


316  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

ness  and  Christian  earnestness.  Providence  seemed  to  favor 
her  wish ;  the  vessel  in  which  she  sailed  was  preserved 
from  imminent  destruction,  and  she  had  the  great  happi- 
ness of  finding  her  husband  alive  and  well. 

On  the  21st  of  April  Mrs.  Livingstone  became  ill.  On 
the  25th  the  symptoms  were  alarming — vomitings  every 
quarter  of  an  hour,  which  prevented  any  medicine  from 
remaining  on  her  stomach.  On  the  26th  she  was  worse 
and  delirious.  On  the  evening  of  Sunday  the  27th  Dr. 
Stewart  got  a  message  from  her  husband  that  the  end  was 
drawing  near.  "  He  was  sitting  by  the  side  of  a  rude  bed 
formed  of  boxes,  but  covered  with  a  soft  mattress,  on  which 
lay  his  dying  wife.  All  consciousness  had  now  departed, 
as  she  was  in  a  state  of  deep  coma,  from  which  all  efforts 
to  rouse  her  had  been  unavailing.  The  strongest  medical 
remedies  and  her  husband's  voice  were  both  alike  power- 
less to  reach  the  spirit  which  was  still  there,  but  was  now 
so  rapidly  sinking  into  the  depths  of  slumber,  and  dark- 
ness and  death.  The  fixedness  of  feature  and  the  op- 
pressed and  heavy  breathing  only  made  it  too  plain  that 
the  end  was  near.  And  the  man  who  had  faced  so  many 
deaths,  and  braved  so  many  dangers,  was  now  utterly 
broken  down  and  weeping  like  a  child." 

Dr.  Livingstone  asked  Dr.  Stewart  to  commend  her 
spirit  to  God,  and  along  with  Dr.  Kirk  they  kneeled  in 
prayer  beside  her.  In  less  than  an  hour,  her  spirit  had 
returned  to  God.  Half  an  hour  after,  Dr.  Stewart  was 
struck  with  her  likeness  to  her  father.  Dr.  Moffat.  He  was 
afraid  to  utter  what  struck  him  so  much,  but  at  last  he 
said  to  Livingstone,  "  Do  you  notice  any  change?"  "Yes," 
he  replied,  without  raising  his  eyes  from  her  face, — "  the 
very  features  and  expression  of  her  father." 

Every  one  is  struck  with  the  calmness  of  Dr.  Living- 
stone's notice  of  his  wife's  death  in  The  Zambesi  and  its 
Tributaries.  Its  matter-of-fact  tone  only  shows  that  he 
regarded  that  book  as  a  sort  of  official  report  to  the  nation, 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION.  317 

In  which  it  would  not  be  becoming  for  him  to  introduce 
personal  feelings.  A  few  extracts  from  his  Journal  and 
letters  will  show  better  the  state  of  his  heart. 

"  It  is  the  first  heavy  stroke  I  have  suffered,  and  quite 
takes  away  my  strength.  I  wept  over  her  who  well  de- 
served many  tears.  I  loved  her  when  1  married  her,  and 
the  longer  I  lived  with  her  I  loved  her  the  more.  God 
pity  the  poor  children,  who  were  all  tenderly  attached  to 
her,  and  I  am  leffc  alone  in  the  world  by  one  whom  I  felt 
to  be  a  part  of  myself.  I  hope  it  may,  by  divine  grace, 
lead  me  to  realize  heaven  as  my  home,  and  that  she  has 
but  preceded  me  in  the  journey.  Oh  my  Mary,  my  Mary  I 
how  often  we  have  longed  for  a  quiet  home,  since  you  and 
1  were  cast  adrift  at  Kolobeng ;  surely  the  removal  by  a 
kind  Father  who  knoweth  our  frame  means  that  He 
rewarded  you  by  taking  you  to  the  best  home,  the  eternal 
one  in  the  heavens.  The  prayer  was  found  in  her  papers 
— 'Accept  me.  Lord,  as  I  am,  and  make  me  such  as  Thou 
wouldst  have  me  to  be.'  He  who  taught  her  to  value  this 
prayer  would  not  leave  his  own  work  unfinished.  On  a 
letter  she  had  written,  'Let  others  plead  for  pensions,  I 
wrote  to  a  friend  I  can  be  rich  without  money;  I  would 
give  my  services  in  the  world  from  uninterested  motives ; 
I  have  motives  for  my  own  conduct  I  would  not  exchange 
for  a  hundred  pensions.* 

"  She  rests  by  the  large  baobab-tree  at  Shupanga,  which 
is  sixty  feet  in  circumference,  and  is  mentioned  in  the  work 
of  Commodore  Owen.  The  men  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
mount  guard  till  we  had  got  the  grave  built  up,  and  we 
had  it  built  with  bricks  dug  from  an  old  house. 

"  From  her  boxes  we  find  evidence  that  she  intended  to 
make  us  all  comfortable  at  Nyassa,  though  she  seemed  to 
have  a  presentiment  of  an  early  death, — she  purposed  to 
do  more  for  me  than  ever. 

"  11th  May,  Kongone. — My  dear,  dear  Mary  has  been  this 
evening  a  fortnight  in  heaven, — absent  from  the  body. 


318  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

present  with  the  Lord.  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  Me  in 
Paradise.  Angels  carried  her  to  Abraham's  bosom — to  be 
with  Christ  is  far  better.  Enoch,  the  seventh  from  Adam, 
prophesied,  '  Behold,  the  Lord  cometh  with  ten  thousand 
of  his  saints ' ;  ye  also  shall  appear  with  Him  in  glory. 
He  comes  with  them ;  then  they  are  now  with  Him.  I  go 
to  prepare  a  place  for  you ;  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may 
be  also,  to  behold  his  glory.  Moses  and  Elias  talked  of  the 
decease  He  should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem;  then  they 
know  what  is  going  on  here  on  certain  occasions.  They 
had  bodily  organs  to  hear  and  speak.  For  the  first  time 
in  my  life  I  feel  willing  to  die. — D.  L." 

"  May  19, 1862. — Vividly  do  I  remember  my  first  passage 
down  in  1856,  passing  Shupanga  house  without  landing, 
and  looking  at  its  red  hills  and  white  vales  with  the  im- 
pression that  it  was  a  beautiful  spot.  No  suspicion  glanced 
across  my  mind  that  there  my  loving  wife  would  be  called 
to  give  up  the  ghost  six  years  afterward.  In  some  other 
spot  I  may  have  looked  at,  my  own  resting-place  may  be 
allotted.  I  have  often  wished  that  it  might  be  in  some  far- 
off  still  deep  forest,  where  I  may  sleep  sweetly  till  the 
resurrection  morn,  when  the  trump  of  God  will  make  all 
start  up  into  the  glorious  and  active  second  existence. 

"  25th  May. — Some  of  the  histories  of  pious  people  in  the 
last  century  and  previously  tell  of  clouds  of  religious 
gloom,  or  of  paroxysms  of  opposition  and  fierce  rebellion 
against  God,  which  found  vent  in  terrible  expressions. 
These  were  followed  by  great  elevations  of  faith,  and 
reactions  of  confiding  love,  the  results  of  divine  influence 
which  carried  the  soul  far  above  the  region  of  the  intellect 
into  that  of  direct  spiritual  intuition.  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  experience  of  my  dear  Mary.  She  had  a  strong 
presentiment  of  death  being  near.  She  said  that  she 
would  never  have  a  house  in  this  country.  Taking  it  to 
be  despondency  alone,  I  only  joked,  and  now  my  heart 
smites  me  that  I  did  not  talk  seriously  on  that  and  many 
things  besides. 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION.  319 

"31s^  May,  1862. — The  loss  of  my  ever  dear  Mary  lies 
like  a  heavy  weight  on  my  heart.  In  our  intercourse  in 
private  there  was  more  than  what  would  be  thought 
by  some  a  decorous  amount  of  merriment  and  play.  I 
said  to  her  a  few  days  before  her  fatal  illness :  *  We  old 
bodies  ought  now  to  be  more  sober,  and  not  play  so  much.' 
'  Oh,  no,'  said  she, '  you  must  always  be  as  playful  as  you 
have  always  been ;  I  would  not  like  you  to  be  as  grave  as 
some  folks  I  have  seen.'  This,  when  I  know  her  prayer 
was  that  she  might  be  spared  to  be  a  help  and  comfort  to 
me  in  my  great  work,  led  me  to  feel  what  I  have  always 
believed  to  be  the  true  way,  to  let  the  head  grow  wise,  but 
keep  the  heart  always  young  and  playful.  She  was  ready 
and  anxious  to  work,  but  has  been  called  away  to  serve 
God  in  a  higher  sphere." 

Livingstone  could  not  be  idle,  even  when  his  heart  was 
broken ;  he  occupied  the  days  after  the  death  in  writing  to 
her  father  and  mother,  to  his  children,  and  to  many  of  the 
friends  who  would  be  interested  in  the  sad  news.  Among 
these  letters,  that  to  Mrs.  Mofifat  and  her  reply  from  Kuru- 
man  have  a  special  interest.  His  letters  went  round  by 
Europe,  and  the  first  news  reached  Kuruman  by  traders 
and  newspapers.  For  a  full  month  after  her  daughter's 
death,  Mrs.  Mofifat  was  giving  thanks  for  the  mercy  that 
had  spared  her  to  meet  with  her  husband,  and  had  made 
her  lot  so  difiPerent  from  that  of  Miss  Mackenzie  and  Mrs. 
Burrup.  In  a  letter,  dated  26th  May,  she  writes  to  Mary 
a  graphic  account  of  the  electrical  thrill  that  passed 
through  her  when  she  saw  David's  handwriting — of  the 
beating  heart  with  which  she  tried  to  get  the  essence  of  his 
letter  before  she  read  the  lines — of  the  overwhelming  joy 
and  gratitude  with  which  she  learned  that  they  had  met 
— and  then  the  horror  of  great  darkness  that  came  over 
her  when  she  read  of  the  tragic  death  of  the  Bishop,  to 
whom  she  had  learned  to  feel  as  to  a  friend  and  brother. 
Then  she  pours  out  her  tears  over  the  "  poor  dear  ladies, 


820  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Miss  Mackenzie  and  Mrs.  Burrup,"  and  remembers  the 
similar  fate  of  the  Helmores,  who,  like  the  Bishop  and  his 
friends,  had  had  it  in  their  hearts  to  build  a  temple  to  the 
Lord  in  Africa,  but  had  not  been  permitted.  Then  comes 
some  family  news,  especially  about  her  son  Robert,  whose 
sudden  death  occurred  a  few  days  after,  and  was  another 
bitter  drop  in  the  family  cup.  And  then  some  motherly 
forecastings  of  her  daughter's  future,  kindly  counsel  where 
she  could  offer  any,  and  affectionate  prayers  for  the  guid- 
ance of  God  where  the  future  was  too  dark  for  her  to 
penetrate. 

For  a  whole  month  before  this  letter  was  written,  poor 
Mary  had  been  sleeping  under  the  baobab-tree  at  Shu- 
panga ! 

In  Livingstone^s  letter  to  Mrs.  Moffat  he  gives  the  details 
of  her  illness,  and  pours  his  heart  out  in  the  same  affec- 
tionate terms  as  in  his  Journal.  He  dwells  on  the  many 
unhappy  causes  of  delay  which  had  detained  them  near 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  contrary  to  all  his  wishes  and 
arrangements.  He  is  concerned  that  her  deafness  (through 
quinine)  and  comatose  condition  before  her  death  pre- 
vented her  from  giving  him  the  indications  he  would 
have  desired  respecting  her  state  of  mind  in  the  view 
of  eternity. 

"  I  look,"  he  says,  "  to  her  previous  experience  and  life 
for  comfort,  and  thank  God  for  his  mercy  that  we  have  it. 
.  .  .  A  good  wife  and  mother  was  she.  God  have  pity 
on  the  children — she  was  so  much  beloved  by  them.  .  . 
She  was  much  respected  by  all  the  officers  of  the  '  Gorgon,' 
— they  would  do  anything  for  her.  When  they  met  this 
vessel  at  Mozambique,  Captain  Wilson  offered  his  cabin  in 
that  fine  large  vessel,  but  she  insisted  rather  that  Miss 
Mackenzie  and  Mrs.  Burrup  should  go.  ...  I  enjoyed 
her  society  during  the  three  months  we  were  together.  It 
was  the  Lord  who  gave  and  He  has  taken  away.  I  wish  to 
say — Blessed  be  his  name.     I  regret,  as  there  always  are 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION.  321 

regrets  after  our  loved  ones  are  gone,  that  the  slander 
which,  unfortunately,  reached  her  ears  from  missionary 
gossips  and  others  had  an  influence  on  me  in  allowing  her 
to  come,  before  we  were  fairly  on  Lake  Nyassa.  A  doctor 
of  divinity  said,  when  her  devotion  to  her  family  was 
praised :  '  Ok,  she  is  no  good,  she  is  here  because  her  hus- 
band cannot  live  with  her/  The  last  day  will  tell  another 
tale." 

To  his  daughter  Agnes  he  writes,  after  the  account  of 
her  death :  "  .  .  ,.  Dear  Nannie,  she  often  thought  of 
you,  and  when  once  from  the  violence  of  the  disease,  she 
was  delirious,  she  called  out, '  See !  Agnes  is  falling  down 
a  precipice/  May  our  Heavenly  Saviour,  who  must  be 
your  Father  and  Guide,  preserve  you  from  falling  into  the 
gulf  of  sin  over  the  precipice  of  temptation.  .  .  .  Dear 
Agnes,  I  feel  alone  in  the  world  now,  and  what  will  the 
poor  dear  baby  do  without  her  mamma  ?  She  often  spoke 
of  her,  and  sometimes  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears,  just  as  I 
now  do  in  taking  up  and  arranging  the  things  left  by  my 
beloved  partner  of  eighteen  years.  ...  I  bow  to  the 
Divine  hand  that  chastens  me.  God  grant  that  I  may 
learn  the  lesson  He  means  to  teach!  All  she  told  you 
to  do  she  now  enforces,  as  if  beckoning  from  heaven. 
Nannie,  dear,  meet  her  there.  Don't  lose  the  crown  of  joy 
she  now  wears,  and  the  Lord  be  gracious  to  you  in  all 
things.  You  will  now  need  to  act  more  and  more  from  a 
feeling  of  responsibility  to  Jesus,  seeing  He  has  taken 
away  one  of  your  guardians.  A  right  straightforward 
woman  was  she.  No  crooked  way  ever  hers,  and  she  could 
act  with  decision  anc  energy  when  required.  I  pity  you 
on  receiving  this,  \>ni  it  is  the  Lord. — Your  sorrowing  and 
lonely  father." 

Letters  of  the  like  tenor  were  written  to  every  intimate 
friend.  It  was  %  relief  to  his  heart  to  pour  itself  out  in 
praise  of  her  w^o  was  gone,  and  in  some  cases,  when  he 
had  told  all  about  the  death,  he  returns  to  speak  of  her 


322  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

life.  A  letter  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  gives  all  the 
particulars  of  the  illness  and  its  termination.  Then  he 
thinks  of  the  good  and  gentle  Lady  Murchison, — "la 
spirituelle  Lady  Murchison,"  as  Humboldt  called  her, — 
and  writes  to  her:  "It  will  somewhat  ease  my  aching 
heart  to  tell  you  about  my  dear  departed  Mary  Moffat, 
the  faithful  companion  of  eighteen  years."  He  tells  of 
her  birth  at  Griqua  Town  in  1821,  her  education  in 
England,  their  marriage  and  their  love.  "  At  Kolobeng, 
she  managed  all  the  household  affairs  by  native  servants 
of  her  own  training,  made  bread,  butter,  and  all  the 
clothes  of  the  family ;  taught  her  children  most  carefully ; 
kept  also  an  infant  and  sewing  school — by  far  the  most 
j.)opular  and  best  attended  we  had.  It  was  a  fine  sight 
to  see  her  day  by  day  walking  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the 
town,  no  matter  how  broiling  hot  the  sun,  to  impart 
instruction  to  the  heathen  Bakwains.  Ma-Robert's  name 
is  known  through  all  that  country,  and  1800  miles  beyond. 
.  .  .  A  brave,  good  woman  was  she.  All  my  hopes  of 
giving  her  one  day  a  quiet  home,  for  which  we  both  had 
many  a  sore  longing,  are  now  dashed  to  the  ground. 
She  is,  I  trust,  through  divine  mercy,  in  peace  in  the 
home  of  the  blest.  .  .  .  She  spoke  feelingly  of  your 
kindness  to  her,  and  also  of  the  kind  reception  she  re- 
ceived from  Miss  Burdett  Coutts.  Please  give  that  lady 
and  Mrs.  Brown  the  sad  intelligence  of  her  death." 

The  reply  of  Mrs.  Moffat  to  her  son-in-law's  letter  was 
touching  and  beautiful.  "I  do  thank  you  for  the  detail 
you  have  given  us  of  the  circumstances  of  the  last  days 
and  hours  of  our  lamented  and  beloved  Mary,  our  first- 
born, over  whom  our  fond  hearts  first  beat  with  parental 
affection!"  She  recounts  the  mercies  that  were  mingled 
with  the  trial — though  Mary  could  not  be  called  eminently 
pious,  she  had  the  root  of  the  matter  in  her,  and  though 
the  voyage  of  her  life  had  been  a  trying  and  stormy  one, 
she  had  not  become  a  wreck.     God  had  remembered  her; 


UNIVERSITIES  MISSION.  323 

had  given  her  during  her  last  year  the  counsels  of  faithful 
men — referring  to  her  kind  friend  and  valued  counselor, 
the  Rev.  Professor  Kirk,  of  Edinburgh,  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Stewart,  of  Lovedale — and,  at  last,  the  great  privilege  of 
dying  in  the  arms  of  her  husband.  "  As  for  the  cruel 
scandal  that  seems  to  have  hurt  you  both  so  much,  those 
who  said  it  did  not  know  you  as  a  couple.  In  all  our  inter- 
course with  you,  we  never  had  a  doubt  as  to  your  being 
comfortable  together.  I  know  there  are  some  maudlin 
ladies  who  insinuate,  when  a  man  leaves  his  family  fres 
quently,  no  matter  how  noble  is  his  object,  that  he  is  not 
comfortable  at  home.  But  we  can  afford  to  smile  at  this, 
and  say,  *  The  Day  will  declare  it.'     .     .     . 

"  Now,  my  dear  Livingstone,  I  must  conclude  by  assuring 
you  of  the  tender  interest  we  shall  ever  feel  in  your  opera- 
tions. It  is  not  only  as  the  husband  of  our  departed  Mary 
an^  the  father  of  her  children,  but  as  one  who  has  laid 
himself  oat  for  the  emancipation  of  this  poor  wretched 
continent,  and  for  opening  iiew  doors  of  entrance  for  the 
heralds  of  salvation  (not  that  I  -would  not  have  preferred 
your  remaining  in  your  former  capacity).  I  nevertheless 
rejoice  in  what  you  are  allowed  to  accomplish.  We  look 
anxiously  for  more  news  of  you,  and  my  hea/t  bounded 
when  I  saw  your  letters  the  other  day,  thinking  they  were 
new.  May  our  gracious  God  and  Father  comfort  your 
sorrowful  heart. — Believe  me  ever  your  affectionate  mother, 

"M/'^Tf  Moffat." 


324  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 


CHAPTER  XV. 

LAST   TWO   YEARS   OF   THE   EXPEDITION. 
A.D.  1862-1863. 

Livingstone  again  buckles  on  his  armor — Letter  to  Waller — Launch  of  **  Lady 

Nyassa" — Too  late  for  season — He  explores' the  Rovuma — Fresh  activity  of 
the  slave-trade — Letter  to  Governor  of  Mozambique  about  his  discoveries- 
Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear — Generous  offer  of  a  party  of  Scotchmen— 
The  Expedition  proceeds  up  Zambesi  with  "  Lady  Nyassa"  in  tow — Appall- 
ing desolations  of  Marianno — Tidings  of  the  Mission — Death  of  Scudamore 
— of  Dickenson — of  Thornton — Illness  of  Livingstone — Dr.  Kirk  and 
Charles  Livingstone  go  home — He  proceeds  northward  with  Mr.  Rae  and 
Mr.  E.  D.  Young  of  the  '♦  Gorgon" — Attempt  to  carry  a  boat  over  the 
rapids — Defeated — Recall  of  the  Expedition — Livingstone's  views — Letter 
to  Mr.  James  Young — to  Mr.  Waller — Feeling  of  the  Portuguese  Govern- 
ment— Offer  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stewart — Great  discouragements — Why  did  he 
not  go  home? — Proceeds  to  explore  Nyassa — Risks  and  sufferings — Occupa- 
tion of  his  mind — Natural  History — Obliged  to  turn  back — More  desolation 
— Report  of  his  murder — Kindness  of  Chinsamba — Reaches  the  ship — Letter 
from  Bishop  Tozer,  abandoning  the  Mission — Distress  of  Livingstone — • 
Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear — Progress  of  Dr.  Stewart — Livingstonia^ 
Livingstone  takes  charge  of  the  children  of  the  Universities  Mission — Letter 
to  his  daughter — Retrospect — The  work  of  the  Expedition — Livingstone's 
plans  for  the  future. 

It  could  not  have  i/een  easy  for  Livingstone  to  buckle 
on  his  armor  anew.  How  he  was  able  to  do  it  at  all  may 
be  inferred  from  some  words  of  cheer  written  by  him  at 
the  time  to  his  friend  Mr.  Waller:  "Thanks  for  your 
kind  sympathy.  In  return,  I  say,  Cherish  exalted  thoughts 
of  the  great  work  you  have  undertaken.  It  is  a  work 
which,  if  faithful,  you  will  look  back  on  with  satisfaction 
while  the  eternal  ages  roll  on  their  everlasting  course. 
The  devil  will  do  all  he  can  to  hinder  vou  by  efforts  frow 


LAST  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION.     325 

without  and  from  within ;  but  remember  Him  who  is  with 
you,  and  will  be  with  you  alway/' 

As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  brace  himself,  he  was  again  at 
his  post,  helping  to  put  the  "  Lady  Nyassa"  together  and 
launch  her.  This  was  achieved  by  the  end  of  June,  great- 
ly to  the  wonder  of  the  natives,  who  could  not  understand 
how  iron  should  swim.  The  "  Nyassa"  was  an  excellent 
steamboat,  and  could  she  have  been  got  to  the  lake  would 
have  done  well.  But,  alas  I  the  rainy  season  had  passed, 
and  until  December  this  could  not  be  done.  Here  was 
another  great  disappointment.  Meanwhile,  Dr.  Living- 
stone resolved  to  renew  the  exploration  of  the  Rovuma,  in 
the  hope  of  finding  a  way  to  Nyassa  beyond  the  dominion 
of  the  Portuguese.  This  was  the  work  in  which  he  had 
been  engaged  at  the  time  when  he  went  with  Bishop  Mac- 
kenzie to  help  him  to  settle. 

The  voyage  up  the  Rovuma  did  not  lead  to  much.  On 
one  occasion  they  were  attacked,  fiercely  and  treacherously, 
by  the  natives.  Cataracts  occurred  about  156  miles  from 
the  mouth,  and  the  report  was  that  farther  up  they  were 
worse.  The  explorers  did  not  venture  beyond  the  banks 
of  the  rivers,  but  so  far  as  they  saw,  the  people  were  in- 
dustrious, and  the  country  fertile,  and  a  steamer  of  light 
draft  might  carry  on  a  very  profitable  trade  among  them. 
But  there  was  no  water-way  to  Nyassa.  The  Rovuma  came 
from  mountains  to  the  west,  having  only  a  very  minute 
connection  with  Nyassa.  It  seemed  that  it  would  be  better 
in  the  meantime  to  reach  the  lake  by  the  Zambesi  and  the 
Shire,  so  the  party  returned.  It  was  not  till  the  beginning 
of  1863  that  they  were  able  to  renew  the  ascent  of  these 
rivers.  Livingstone  writes  touchingly  to  Sir  Roderick,  in 
; reference  to  his  returning  to  the  Zambesi:  "  It  may  seem  to 
some  persons  weak  to  feel  a  chord  vibrating  to  the  dust  of 
her  who  rests  on  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi,  and  think  that 
the  path  by  that  river  is  consecrated  by  her  remains/' 

Meanwhile,  Dr.  Livingstone  was  busy  with  his  pen.    A 


326  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

new  energy  had  been  imparted  to  him  by  the  appalling 
facts  now  fully  apparent,  that  his  discoveries  had  only 
stimulated  the  activity  of  the  slave-traders,  that  the  Portu- 
guese local  authorities  really  promoted  slave-trading,  with 
its  inevitable  concomitant  slave-hunting,  and  that  the 
horror  and  desolation  to  which  the  country  bore  such 
frightful  testimony  was  the  result.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
duel  he  had  fought  with  the  Boers  when  they  determined 
to  close  Africa,  and  he  determined  to  open  it,  had  now  to 
be  repeated  with  the  Portuguese.  The  attention  of  Dr. 
Livingstone  is  more  and  more  concentrated  on  this  terrible 
topic.  Dr.  Kirk  writes  to  him  that  when  at  Tette  he  had 
heard  that  the  Portuguese  Governor-General  at  Mozam- 
bique had  instructed  his  brother,  the  Governor  of  that 
town,  to  act  on  the  principle  that  the  slave-trade,  though 
prohibited  on  the  ocean,  was  still  lawful  on  the  land, 
and  that  any  persons  interfering  with  slave-traders,  by 
liberating  their  slaves,  would  be  counted  robbers.  An 
energetic  despatch  to  Earl  Russell,  then  Foreign  Secretary, 
calls  attention  to  this  outrage. 

A  few  days  after,  a  strong  but  poliw  letter  is  sent  to  the 
Governor  of  Tette,  calling  attention  to  the  forays  of  a  man 
named  Belshore,  in  the  Chibisa  country,  and  entreating 
him  to  stop  them.  About  the  same  time  he  writes  to  the 
Governor-General  of  Mozambique  in  reply  to  a  paper  by 
the  Viscount  de  Sa  da  Bandeira,  published  in  the  Almanac 
by  the  Government  press,  in  which  the  common  charge 
was  made  against  him  of  arrogating  to  himself  the  glory 
of  discoveries  which  belonged  to  Senhor  Candido  and 
other  Portuguese.  He  affirms  that  before  publishing  his 
book  he  examined  all  Portuguese  books  of  travels  he  could 
find ;  that  he  had  actually  shown  Senhor  Candido  to  have 
been  a  discoverer  before  any  Portuguese  hinted  that  he 
was  such ;  that  the  lake  which  Candido  spoke  of  as  north- 
west of  Tette  could  not  be  Nyassa,  which  was  northeast  of 
it;  that  he  did  full  justice  to  all  the  Portuguese  explorers, 


LAST  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION,     327 

and  that  what  he  claimed  as  own  discoveries  were  certain- 
ly not  the  discoveries  of  the  Portuguese.  A  few  days  after, 
he  writes  to  Mr.  Layard,  then  our  Portuguese  Minister, 
and  comments  on  the  map  published  by  the  Viscount  as 
representing  Portuguese  geography, — pointing  out  such 
blunders  as  that  which  made  the  Zambesi  enter  the  sea  at 
Quilimane,  proving  that  by  their  map  the  Portuguese 
claimed  territory  that  was  certainly  not  theirs ;  adverting 
to  their  utter  ignorance  of  the  Victoria  Falls,  the  most 
remarkable  phenomenon  in  Africa  ;  affirming  that  many 
so-called  discoveries  were  mere  vague  rumors,  heard  by 
travelers;  and  showing  the  use  that  had  been  made  of 
his  own  maps,  the  names  being  changed  to  suit  the  Portu* 
guese  orthography. 

Livingstone  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  his 
account  of  the  trip  to  Lake  Nyassa  had  excited  much 
interest  in  the  Cabinet  at  home,  and  that  a  strong  re- 
monstrance had  been  addressed  to  the  Portuguese  Govern- 
ment against  slave-hunting.  But  it  does  not  appear  that 
this  led  to  any  improvement  at  the  time. 

While  stung  into  more  than  ordinary  energy  by  the 
atrocious  deeds  he  witnessed  around  him,  Livingstone  was 
living  near  the  borders  of  the  unseen  world.  He  writes 
to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  on  the  27th  October,  1862 : 

"  I  suppose  that  I  shall  die  in  these  uplands,  and  somebody  will  carry 
out  the  plan  I  have  longed  to  put  into  practice.  I  have  been  thinking 
a  great  deal  since  the  departure  of  my  beloved  one  about  the  regions 
whither  she  has  gone,  and  imagine  from  the  manner  the  Bible  describes 
it  we  have  got  too  much  monkery  in  our  ideas.  There  will  be  work 
there  as  well  as  here,  and  possibly  not  such  a  vast  diflference  in  our 
being  as  is  expected.  But  a  short  time  there  will  give  more  insight  than 
a  thousand  musings.  We  shall  see  Him  by  whose  inexpressible  love 
and  mercy  we  get  there,  and  all  whom  we  loved,  and  all  the  lovable, 
I  can  sympathize  with  you  now  more  fully  than  I  did  before.  I  work 
with  as  much  vigor  as  I  can,  and  mean  to  do  so  till  the  change  comes  j 
bu*  ''^p  prospect  of  a  home  is  all  dispelled." 

In  one  of  his  despatches  to  Lord  Russell,  Livingstone 


328  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

reports  an  offer  that  had  been  made  by  a  party  consisting 
of  an  Englishman  and  five  Scotch  working  men  at  the 
Cape,  which  must  have  been  extremely  gratifying  to  him, 
and  served  to  deepen  his  conviction  that  sooner  or  later 
his  plan  of  colonization  would  certainly  be  carried  into 
effect.  The  leader  of  the  party,  John  Jehan,  formerly  of 
the  London  City  Mission,  in  reading  Dr.  Livingstone's 
book,  became  convinced  that  if  a  few  mechanics  could  be 
induced  to  take  a  journey  of  exploration  it  would  prove 
very  useful.  His  views  being  communicated  to  five  other 
young  men  (two  masons,  two  carpenters,  one  smith),  they 
formed  themselves  into  a  company  in  July,  1861,  and  had 
been  working  together,  throwing  their  earnings  into  a 
common  fund,  and  now  they  had  arms,  two  wagons,  two 
spans  of  oxen,  and  means  of  procuring  outfits.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1862,  they  were  ready  to  start  from  Aliwal  in 
South  Africa.^ 

After  going  to  Johanna  for  provisions,  and  to  discharge 
the  crew  of  Johanna  men  whose  term  of  service  had 
expired,  the  Expedition  returned  to  Tette.  On  the  10th 
January,  1863,  they  steamed  off  with  the  "  Lady  Nyassa" 
in  tow.  The  desolation  that  had  been  caused  by  Marianne, 
the  Portuguese  slave-agent,  was  heart-breaking.  Corpses 
floated  past  them.  In  the  morning  the  paddles  had  to  be 
cleared  of  corpses  caught  by  the  floats  during  the  night. 
Livingstone  summed  up  his  impressions  in  one  terrible 
sentence : 

"  Wherever  we  took  a  walk,  human  skeletons  were  seen 
in   every  direction,   and   it  was   painfully  interesting  to 

*  The  recall  of  Livingstone's  Expedition  and  the  removal  of  the  Universities 
Mission  seem  to  have  knocked  this  most  promising  scheme  on  the  head. 
"Writing  of  it  to  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  on  the  14th  December,  1862,  he 
says :  •*  I  like  the  Scotchmen,  and  think  them  much  better  adapted  for  our 
plans  than  those  on  whom  the  Universities  Mission  has  lighted.  If  employed 
as  I  shall  wish  them  to  be  in  trade,  and  setting  an  example  of  industry  in 
cotton  or  coffee  planting,  I  think  they  are  just  the  men  I  need  brought  to  mj 
land.     Don't  you  think  this  sensible  ?" 


LAST  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION.     329 

observe  the  diflPerent  postures  in  which  the  poor  wretches 
had  breathed  their  last.  A  whole  heap  had  been  thrown 
down  a  slope  behind  a  village,  where  the  fugitives  often 
crossed  the  river  from  the  east;  and  in  one  hut  of  the 
same  village  no  fewer  than  twenty  drums  had  been 
collected,  probably  the  ferryman's  fees.  Many  had  ended 
their  misery  under  shady  trees,  others  under  projecting 
crags  in  the  hills,  while  others  lay  in  their  huts  with 
closed  doors,  which  when  opened  disclosed  the  mouldering 
corpse  with  the  poor  rags  round  the  loins,  the  skull  fallen 
off  the  pillow,  the  little  skeleton  of  the  child,  that  had 
perished  first,  rolled  up  in  a  mat  between  two  large  skele- 
tons. The  sight  of  this  desert,  but  eighteen  months  ago 
a  well-peopled  valley,  now  literally  strewn  with  human 
bones,  forced  the  conviction  upon  us  that  the  destruction 
of  human  life  in  the  middle  passage,  however  great,  con- 
stitutes but  a  small  portion  of  the  waste,  and  made  us  feel 
that  unless  the  slave-trade — that  monster  iniquity  which 
has  so  long  brooded  over  Africa — is  put  down,  lawful 
commerce  cannot  be  established." 

In  passing  up,  Livingstone's  heart  was  saddened  as  he 
visited  the  Bishop's  grave,  and  still  more  by  the  tidings 
which  he  got  of  the  Mission,  which  had  now  removed 
from  Magomero  to  the  low  lands  of  Chibisa.  Some  time 
before,  Mr.  Scudamore,  a  man  greatly  beloved,  had  suc- 
cumbed, and  now  Mr.  Dickenson  was  added  to  the  number 
of  victims.  Mr.  Thornton,  too,  who  left  the  Expedition  in 
1859,  but  returned  to  it,  died  under  an  attack  of  fever, 
consequent  on  too  violent  exertion  undertaken  in  order  to 
be  of  service  to  the  Mission  party.  Dr.  Kirk  and  Mr.  C. 
Livingstone  were  so  much  reduced  by  illness  that  it  was 
deemed  necessary  for  them  to  return  to  England.  Living- 
stone himself  had  a  most  serious  attack  of  fever,  which 
lasted  all  the  month  of  May,  Dr.  Kirk  remaining  with 
him  till  he  got  over  it.  When  his  brother  and  Dr.  Kirk 
left,  the  only  Europeans  remaining  with  him  were  Mr. 


330  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Rae,  the  ship's  engineer,  and  Mr.  Edward  D.  Young, 
formerly  of  the  "  Gorgon/'  who  had  volunteered  to  join 
the  Expedition,  and  whose  after  services,  both  in  the 
search  for  Livingstone  and  in  establishing  the  mission  of 
Livingstonia,  were  so  valuable.  On  the  noble  spirit  shown 
by  Livingstone  in  remaining  in  the  country  after  all  his 
early  companions  had  left,  and  amid  such  appalling  scenes 
as  everywhere  met  him,  we  do  not  need  to  dwell. 

Here  are  glimpses  of  the  inner  heart  of  Livingstone 
about  this  time : 

"  1st  March,  1863. — I  feel  very  often  that  I  have  not  long  to  live,  and 
say,  '  My  dear  children,  I  leave  you.  Be  manly  Christians,  and  never 
do  a  mean  thing.     Be  honest  to  men,  and  to  the  Almighty  One.'  " 

"  lOih  April. — Eeached  the  Cataracts.  Very  thankful  indeed  after 
our  three  months'  toil  from  Shupanga." 

"27iA  April. — On  this  day  twelvemonths  my  beloved  Mary  Moflfat 
was  removed  from  me  by  death. 

"  *  If  I  can,  I'll  come  again,  mother,  from  out  my  resting-place ; 
Though  you'll  not  see  me,  mother,  I  shall  look  upon  your  face; 
Though  I  cannot  speak  a  word,  I  shall  hearken  what  you  say, 
And  be  often,  often  with  you  when  you  think  I'm  far  away.* 

"Tennyson." 

The  "Lady  Nyassa"  being  taken  to  pieces,  the  party 
began  to  construct  a  road  over  ihe  thirty-five  or  forty 
miles  of  the  rapids,  in  order  to  convey  the  steamer  to  the 
lake.  After  a  few  miles  of  the  road  had  been  completed, 
it  was  thought  desirable  to  ascertain  whether  the  boat 
left  near  the  lake  two  years  before  was  fit  for  service,  so 
as  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  carrying  another  boat  past  the 
rapids.  On  reaching  it  the  boat  was  found  to  have  been 
burnt.  The  party  therefore  returned  to  carry  up  another. 
They  had  got  to  the  very  last  rapid,  and  had  placed  the 
boat  for  a  short  space  in  the  water,  when,  through  the 
carelessness  of  five  Zambesi  men,  she  was  overturned,  and 
away  she  went  like  an  arrow  down  the  rapids.  To  keep 
calm  under  such  a  crowning  disappointment  must  have 
taxed  Livingstone's  self-control  to  the  very  utmost. 


LA8T  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION.     331 

It  was  now  that  he  received  a  despatch  from  Earl 
Russell  intimating  that  the  Expedition  was  recalled.  This, 
though  a  great  disappointment,  was  not  altogether  a  sur- 
prise. On  the  24th  April  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Waller, 
"I  should  not  wonder  in  the  least  to  be  recalled,  for  should 
the  Portuguese  persist  in  keeping  the  rivers  shut,  there 
would  be  no  use  in  trying  to  develop  trade."  He  states  his 
views  on  the  recall  calmly  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  James  Young : 

*^  Murchison  Cataracts,  Sd  July,  1863. —  .  .  .  Got  instructions  for 
our  recall  yesterday,  at  which  I  do  not  wonder.  The  Government  has 
behaved  well  to  us  throughout,  and  I  feel  abundantly  thankful  to 
H.M.'s  ministers  for  enabling  me  so  far  to  carry  on  the  experiment  of 
turning  the  industrial  and  trading  propensities  of  the  natives  to  good 
account,  with  a  view  of  thereby  eradicating  the  trade  in  slaves.  But 
the  Portuguese  dogged  our  footsteps,  and,  as  is  generally  understood, 
with  the  approbation  of  their  Home  Government,  neutralized  our  labors. 
Not  that  the  Portuguese  statesmen  approved  of  slaving,  but  being 
enormously  jealous  lest  their  pretended  dominion  from  sea  to  sea  and 
elsewhere  should  in  the  least  degree,  now  or  any  future  time,  become 
aught  else  than  a  slave  '  preserve,'  the  Governors  have  been  instructed, 
and  have  carried  out  their  instructions  further  than  their  employers  in* 
tended.  Major  Sicard  was  removed  from  Tette  as  too  friendly,  and  his 
successor  had  emmissaries  in  the  Ajawa  camp.  Well,  we  saw  their 
policy,  and  regretted  that  they  should  be  allowed  to  follow  us  into  per* 
fectly  new  regions.  The  regret  was  the  more  poignant,  inasmuch  aa 
but  for  our  entering  in  by  gentleness,  they  durst  not  have  gone.  No 
Portuguese  dared,  for  instance,  to  come  up  this  Shir6  Valley ;  but  after 
our  dispelling  the  fear  of  the  natives  by  fair  treatment,  they  came  in 
calling  themselves  our  '  children.*  The  whole  thing  culminated  when 
this  quarter  was  inundated  with  Tette  slavers,  whose  operations,  with 
a  marauding  tribe  of  Ajawas,  and  a  drought,  completely  depopulated 
the  country.  The  sight  of  this  made  me  conclude  that  unless  some- 
thing could  be  done  to  prevent  these  raids,  and  take  off  their  foolish 
obstructions  on  the  rivers,  which  they  never  use,  our  work  in  this  region 
was  at  an  end.  .  .  .  Please  the  Supreme,  I  shall  work  some  other 
point  yet.  In  leaving,  it  is  bitter  to  see  some  900  milies  of  coast  aban. 
doned  to  those  who  were  the  first  to  begin  the  slave-trade,  and  seem  de 
termmed  to  be  the  last  to  abandon  it." 

Writing  to  Mr.  Waller  at  this  time  lie  said :  "  I  don't 
know  whether  I  am  to  go  on  the  shelf  or  not.    If  I  do,  I 


SS2  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

make  Africa  the  shelf.  If  the  "  Lady  Nya^a"  is  well  sold, 
I  shall  manage.  There  is  a  Ruler  above,  and  his  provi- 
dence guides  all  things.  He  is  our  Friend,  and  has  plenty 
of  work  for  all  his  people  to  do.  Don't  fear  of  being  lefifc 
idle,  if  willing  to  work  for  Him.  I  am  glad  to  her  of 
Alington.  If  the  work  is  of  God  it  will  come  out  all  right 
at  last.  To  Him  shall  be  given  of  the  gold  of  Sheba,  and 
daily  shall  He  be  praised.  I  always  think  it  was  such  a 
blessing  and  privilege  to  be  led  into  his  work  instead  of 
into  the  service  of  the  hard  taskmasters — the  Devil  and  J 
Sin."  ■ 

The  reason  assigned  by  Earl  Russell  for  the  recall  of  the  , 
Expedition  were,  that,  not  through  any  fault  of  Dr.  Living-  ! 
stone's,  it  had  not  accomplished  the  objects  for  which  it 
had  been  designed,  and  that  it  had  proved  much  more  d 
costly  than  was  originally  expected.  Probably  the  Govern- 
ment felt  likewise  that  their  remonstrances  with  the 
Portuguese  Government  were  unavailing,  and  that  their 
relations  were  becoming  too  uncomfortable.  Even  among 
those  most  friendly  to  Dr.  Li  s^ingstone's  great  aim,  and 
most  opposed  to  the  slave-trade,  and  to  the  Portuguese 
policy  in  Africa,  there  were  some  who  doubted  whether  his 
proposed  methods  of  procedure  were  quite  consistent  with 
the  rights  of  the  Portuguese  Government.  His  Royal 
Highness  the  Prince-Consort  indicated  some  feeling  of  this 
kind  in  his  interview  with  Livingstone  in  1857.  He  ex- 
pressed the  feeling  more  strongly  when  he  declined  the 
request,  made  to  him  through  Professor  Sedgwick  of  Cam- 
bridge, that  he  would  allow  himself  to  be  Patron  of  the  Uni- 
versities Mission.  Dr.  Livingstone  knew  well  that  from  that 
exalted  quarter  his  plans  would  receive  no  active  support. 
That  he  should  have  obtained  the  support  he  did  from 
successive  Governments  and  successive  Foreign  Secretaries, 
Liberal  and  Conservative,  was  a  great  gratification,  if  not 
something  of  a  surprise.  Hence  the  calmness  with  which 
be  received  the  intelligence  of  the  recalL     Toward  th« 


1 


LAST  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION.     333 

Portuguese  Government  his  feelings  were  not  very  sweet. 
On  them  lay  the  guilt  of  arresting  a  work  that  would  have 
conferred  untold  blessing  on  Africa.  He  determined  to 
make  this  known  very  clearly  when  he  should  return  to 
England.  At  a  future  period  of  his  life,  he  purposed,  if 
spared,  to  go  more  fully  into  the  reasons  of  his  recall. 
Meanwhile,  his  course  was  simply  to  acquiesce  in  the 
resolution  of  the  British  Government. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  the  recall  took  place  before  he 
had  been  able  to  carry  into  effect  his  favorite  scheme  of 
placing  a  steamer  on  Lake  Nyassa ;  nor  could  he  do  this 
now,  although  the  vessel  on  which  he  had  spent  half  his 
fortune  lay  at  the  Murchison  Cataracts.  He  had  always 
cherished  the  hope  that  the  Government  would  repay  him 
at  least  a  part  of  the  outlay,  which,  instead  of  £3000,  as 
he  had  intended,  had  mounted  up  to  £6000.  He  had  very 
generously  told  Dr.  Stewart  that  if  this  should  be  done, 
and  if  he  should  be  willing  to  return  from  Scotland  to 
labor  on  the  shores  of  Nyassa,  he  would  pay  him  his  ex- 
penses out,  and  £150  yearly,  so  anxious  was  he  that  he 
should  begin  the  work.  On  the  recall  of  the  Expedition, 
without  any  allowance  for  the  ship,  or  even  mention  of  it, 
all  these  expectations  and  intentions  came  abruptly  to  an 
end. 

At  no  previous  time  had  Dr.  Livingstone  been  under 
greater  discouragements  than  now.  The  Expedition  had 
been  recalled;  his  heart  had  not  recovered  from  the 
desolation  caused  by  the  death  of  the  Bishop  and  his 
brethren,  as  well  as  the  Helm  ores  in  the  Makololo  country, 
and  still  more  by  the  removal  of  Mrs.  Livingstone,  and 
the  thought  of  his  motherless  children ;  the  most  heart- 
rending scenes  had  been  witnessed  everywhere  in  regions 
that  a  short  time  ago  had  been  so  bright ;  all  his  efforts  to 
do  good  had  been  turned  to  evil,  every  new  path  he  had 
opened  having  been  seized  as  it  were  by  the  devil  and 
turned  to  the  most  diabolical  ends ;   his  countrymen  were 


334  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

nearly  ail  away  from  him ;  the  most  depressing  of  diseases 
had  produced  its  natural  effect ;  he  had  had  worries,  de- 
lays, and  disappointments  about  ships  and  boats  of  the 
most  harrassing  kind ;  and  now  the  "  Lady  Nyassa"  could 
not  be  floated  in  the  waters  of  which  he  had  fondly  hoped 
to  see  her  the  angel  and  the  queen.  It  is  hardly  possible 
to  exaggerate  the  noble  quality  of  the  heart  that,  unde- 
terred by  all  these  troubles,  resolved  to  take  this  last 
chance  of  exploring  the  banks  of  Nyassa,  although  it 
could  only  be  by  the  weary  process  of  trudge,  trudge, 
trudging ;  although  hunger,  if  not  starvation,  blocked  the 
path,  and  fever  and  dysentery  flitted  around  it  like  imps 
of  darkness;  although  tribes,  demoralized  by  the  slave- 
trade,  might  at  any  moment  put  an  end  to  him  and  his 
enterprise ; — not  to  speak  of  the  ordinary  risks  of  travel, 
the  difi&culty  of  finding  guides,  the  liability  to  bodily  hurt, 
the  scarcity  of  food,  the  perils  from  wild  beasts  by  night 
and  by  day, — risks  which  no  ordinary  traveler  could  think 
of  lightly,  but  which  in  Livingstone's  journeys  drop  out 
of  sight,  because  they  are  so  overtopped  and  dwarfed  by 
risks  that  ordinary  travelers  never  know. 

"Why  did  not  Livingstone  go  home  ?  A  single  sentence 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Waller,  while  the  recall  was  only  in  con- 
templation, explains :  "  In  my  case,  duty  would  not  lead 
me  home,  and  home  therefore  I  would  not  go."  Away 
then  goes  Livingstone,  accompanied  by  the  steward  of  the 
"Pioneer"  and  a  handful  of  native  servants  (Mr.  Young 
being  left  in  charge  of  the  vessel),  to  get  to  the  northern 
end  of  the  lake,  and  ascertain  whether  any  large  river 
flowed  into  it  from  the  west,  and  if  possible  to  visit  Lake 
Moero,  of  which  he  had  heard,  lying  a  considerable  way 
to  the  west.  For  the  first  time  in  his  travels  he  carried 
some  bottles  of  wine, — a  present  from  the  missionaries 
Waller  and  Alington ;  for  water  had  hitherto  been  his  only 
drink,  with  a  little  hot  coffee  in  the  mornings  to  warm  the 
stomach  and  ward  off  the  feeling  of  sinking.    At  one  time 


LAST  TWO  YEAHS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION,     335 

the  two  white  men  are  lost  three  days  in  the  woods,  with- 
out food  or  the  means  of  purchasing  it ;    but  some  poor 
natives  out  of  their  poverty  show  them  kindness.     At  an- 
other they  can  procure  no  guides,  though  the  country  is 
difficult  and  the  way  intersected  by  deep  gullies  that  can 
only  be  scaled  at  certain  known  parts;   anon  they  are 
taken  for  slave-dealers,  and  make  a  narrow  escape  of  a 
night  attack.     Another  time,  the  cries  of  children  remind 
Livingstone  of  his  own  home  and  family,  where  the  very 
same  tones  of  sorrow  had  often  been  heard ;   the  thought 
brought  its  own  pang,  only  he  could  feel  thankful  that  in 
the  case  of  his  children  the  woes  of  the  slave-trade  would 
never  be  added  to  the  ordinary  sorrows  of  childhood. 
Then  he  would  enjoy  the  joyous  laugh  of  some  Manganja 
women,  and  think  of  the  good  influence  of  a  merry  heart, 
and  remember  that  whenever  he  had  observed  a  chief  with 
a  joyous  twinkle  of  the  eye  accompanying  his  laugh,  he 
had  always  set  him  down  as  a  good  fellow,  and  had  never 
been  disappointed   in    him    afterward.     Then   he  would 
cheer  his  monotony  by  making  some  researches  into  the 
origin  of  civilization,  coming  to  the  clear  conclusion  that 
born  savages  must  die  out,  because  they  could  devise  no 
means  of  living  through  disease.     By  and  by  he  would 
examine  the  Arab  character,  and  find  Mahometanism  as 
it  now  is  in  Africa  worse  than  African  heathenism,  and 
remark  on  the  callousness  of  the  Mahometans  to  the  wel- 
fare of  one  another,  and  on  the  especial  glory  of  Christi- 
anity, the  only  religion  that  seeks  to  propagate  itself,  and 
through  the  influence  of  love   share  its  blessings  with 
others.     Anon  he  would  dwell  on  the  primitive  African 
faith ;  its  recognition  of  one  Almighty  Creator,  its  moral 
code,  so  like  our  own,  save  in  the  one  article  of  polygamy ; 
its  pious  recognition  of  a  future  life,  though  the  element 
of  punishment  is  not  very  conspicuous ;  its  mild  character 
generally,  notwithstanding  the  bloodthirstiness  sometimes 
ascribed  to  it,  which,  however,  Livingstone  held  to  be,  at 
Dahomey  for  example^urely  exceptionaL 


336  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Another  subject  that  occupied  him  was  the  natural 
history  of  the  country.  He  would  account  for  desert 
tracts  like  Kalahari  by  the  fact  that  the  east  and  south- 
east winds,  laden  with  moisture  from  the  Indian  Ocean, 
get  cooled  over  the  coast  ranges  of  mountains,  and  having 
discharged  their  vapor  there  had  no  spare  moisture  to 
deposit  over  the  regions  that  for  want  of  it  became  deserts. 
The  geology  of  Southern  Africa  was  peculiar;  the  geo- 
graphical series  described  in  books  was  not  to  be  found 
here,  for,  as  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  had  shown,  the  great 
submarine  depressions  and  elevations  that  had  so  greatly 
affected  the  other  continents  during  the  secondary,  tertiary, 
and  more  recent  periods,  had  not  affected  Africa.  It  had 
preserved  its  terrestrial  conditions  during  a  long  period, 
unaffected  by  any  changes  save  those  dependent  on  atmos- 
pheric influences.  There  was  also  a  peculiarity  in  pre- 
historic Africa — it  had  no  stone  period;  at  least  no  flint 
weapons  had  been  found,  and  the  familiarity  and  skill  of 
the  natives  with  the  manufacture  of  iron  seemed  to  indi- 
cate that  they  had  used  iron  weapons  from  the  first. 

The  travelers  had  got  as  far  as  the  river  Loangwa  (of 
Nyassa),  when  a  halt  had  to  be  called.  Some  of  the  natives 
had  been  ill,  and  indeed  one  had  died  in  the  comparatively 
cold  climate  of  the  highlands.  But  nothing  would  have 
hindered  Livingstone  from  working  his  way  round  the 
head  of  the  lake  if  only  time  had  been  on  his  side.  But 
time  was  inexorably  against  him ;  the  orders  from  Govern- 
ment were  strict.  He  must  get  the  "Pioneer"  down  to  the 
sea  while  the  river  was  in  flood.  A  month  or  six  weeks 
would  have  enabled  him  to  finish  his  researches,  but  he 
could  not  run  the  risk.  It  would  have  been  otherwise  had 
he  foreseen  that  when  he  got  to  the  ship  he  would  be 
detained  two  months  waiting  for  the  rising  of  the  river. 
On  their  way  back,  they  took  a  nearer  cut,  but  found  the 
villages  all  deserted.  The  reeds  along  the  banks  of  the 
lake  were  crowded  with  fugitives.     "  In  passing  mik  after 


LAST  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION.     337 

mile,  marked  with  the  sad  proofs  that  *  man's  inhumanity 
to  man  makes  countless  thousands  mourn/  one  experi- 
ences an  overpowering  sense  of  helplessness  to  alleviate 
human  woe,  and  breathes  a  silent  prayer  to  the  Almighty 
to  hasten  the  good  time  coming  when  '  man  to  man,  the 
world  o'er,  shall  brothers  be  for  all  that.'"  Near  a  village 
called  Bangwe  they  were  pursued  by  a  body  of  Mazitu, 
who  retired  when  they  came  within  ear-shot.  This  little 
.adventure  seemed  to  give  rise  to  the  report  that  Dr. 
Livingstone  had  been  murdered  by  the  Makololo,  which 
reached  England,  and  created  no  small  alarm.  Referring 
to  the  report  in  his  jocular  way,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Mr.  Fitch,  he  says,  "  A  report  of  my  having  been  murdered 
Bt  the  lake  has  been  very  industriously  circulated  by  tha 
Portuguese.  Don't  become  so  pale  on  getting  a  letter  from 
a  dead  man." 

Reaching  the  stockade  of  Chinsamba  in  Mosapo,  they 
were  much  pleased  with  that  chief's  kindness.  Dr.  Living- 
stone followed  his  usual  method,  and  gained  his  usual 
influence.  "  When  a  chief  has  made  any  inquiries  of  us, 
we  have  found  that  we  gave  most  satisfaction  in  our 
answers  when  we  tried  to  fancy  ourselves  in  the  position 
of  the  interrogator,  and  him  that  of  a  poor  uneducated 
fellow-countryman  in  England.  The  polite,  respectful  way 
of  speaking,  and  behavior  of  -v^^hat  we  call  '  a  thorough 
gentleman,'  almost  always  secures  the  friendship  and  good- 
will of  the  Africans." 

On  1st  November,  1863,  the  party  reached  the  ship, 
and  found  all  well.  Here,  as  has  been  said,  two  months 
had  to  be  spent  waiting  for  the  flood,  to  Dr.  Livingstone's 
intense  chagrin. 

While  waiting  here  he  received  a  letter  from  Bishop 
Tozer,  the  successor  of  Bishop  Mackenzie,  informing  him 
that  he  had  resolved  to  abandon  the  Mission  on  the  con- 
tinent and  transfer  operations  to  Zanzibar.  Dr.  Living- 
stone had  very  sincerely  welcomed  the  new  Bishop,  and 
29 


S38  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

at  first  liked  him,  and  thought  that  his  caution  would 
lead  to  good  results.  Indeed,  when  he  saw  that  his  own 
scheme  was  destroyed  by  the  Portuguese,  he  had  great 
hopes  that  what  he  had  been  defeated  in,  the  Mission 
would  accomplish.  Some  time  before,  his  hopes  had  begun 
to  wane,  and  now  the  news  conveyed  in  Bishop  Tozer's 
letter  was  their  death-blow.  In  his  reply  he  implored  the 
Bishop  to  reconsider  the  matter.  After  urging  strongly 
some  considerations  bearing  on  the  duty  of  missionaries, 
the  reputation  of  Englishmen,  and  the  impression  likely 
to  be  made  on  the  native  mind,  he  concluded  thus :  "  I 
hope,  dear  Bishop,  you  will  not  deem  me  guilty  of  imper- 
tinence in  thus  writing  to  you  with  a  sore  heart.  I  see 
that  if  you  go,  the  last  ray  of  hope  for  this  wretched, 
trodden-down  people  disappears,  and  I  again  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  entreat  you  to  reconsider  the  matter, 
and  may  the  All-wise  One  guide  to  that  decision  which 
will  be  most  for  his  glory." 

And  thus,  for  Livingstone^s  life-time,  ended  the  Univer- 
sities Mission  to  Central  Africa,  with  all  the  hopes  which 
its  bright  dawn  had  inspired,  that  the  great  Church  of 
England  would  bend  its  strength  against  the  curse  of 
Africa,  and  sweep  it  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  Writing 
to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear,  he  said  that  he  felt  this  much 
more  than  his  own  recall.  He  could  hardly  write  of  it ; 
he  was  more  inclined  "  to  sit  down  and  cry."  No  mission 
had  ever  had  such  bright  prospects ;  notwithstanding  all 
that  had  been  said  against  it,  he  stood  by  the  climate  as 
firmly  as  ever,  and  if  he  were  only  young,  he  would  go 
himself  and  plant  the  gospel  there.  It  would  be  done  ono 
day  without  fail,  though  he  might  not  live  to  see  it. 

As  usual,  Livingstone  found  himself  blamed  for  the 
removal  of  the  Mission.  The  Makololo  had  behaved 
badly,  and  they  were  Livingstone's  people.  "  Isn't  it  in- 
teresting," he  writes  to  Mr.  Moore,  "to  get  blamed  for 
everything?    But  I  must  be  thankful  in  feeling  that  I 


LAIST  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION.     339 

wrould  rather  perish  than  blame  another  for  my  misdeeds 
and  deficiencies." 

We  have  lost  sight  of  Dr.  Stewart  and  the  projected 
mission  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  As  Dr.  Living- 
stone's arrangements  did  not  admit  of  his  accompanying 
Dr.  Stewart  up  the  Shire,  he  set  out  alone,  falling  in  after- 
ward with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Scudamore,  a  member,  and  as  we 
have  already  said  ultimately  a  martyr,  of  the  Universities 
Mission.  The  report  which  Dr.  Stewart  made  of  the  pro- 
spects of  a  mission  was  that,  owing  to  the  disturbed  state 
of  the  country,  no  immediate  action  could  be  taken. 
Livingstone  seemed  to  think  him  hasty  in  this  conclusion. 
The  scheme  continued  to  be  ardently  cherished,  and  some 
ten  or  twelve  years  after — in  1874— in  the  formation  of 
the  "  Livingstonia"  mission  and  colony,  a  most  promising 
and  practical  step  was  taken  toward  the  fulfillment  of  Dr. 
Livingstone's  views.  Dr.  Stewart  has  proved  one  of  the 
best  friends  and  noblest  workers  for  African  regeneration 
both  at  Lovedale  and  Livingstonia — a  strong  man  on 
whom  other  men  may  lean,  with  his  whole  heart  in  the 
cause  of  Africa. 

In  the  breaking  up  of  the  Universities  Mission,  it  was 
necessary  that  some  arrangement  should  be  made  on 
behalf  of  about  thirty  boys  and  a  few  helpless  old  persons 
and  others,  a  portion  of  the  rescued  slaves,  who  had  been 
taken  under  the  charge  of  the  Mission,  and  could  not  be 
abandoned.  The  fear  of  the  Portuguese  seemed  likely  to 
lead  to  their  being  left  behind.  But  Livingstone  could 
not  bear  the  idea.  He  thought  it  would  be  highly  dis- 
creditable to  the  good  name  of  England,  and  an  aflront  to 
the  memory  of  Bishop  Mackenzie,  to  "  repudiate"  his  act 
in  taking  them  under  his  protection.  Therefore,  when 
Bishop  Tozer  would  not  accept  the  charge,  he  himself  took 
them  in  hand,  giving  orders  to  Mr.  E.  D.  Young  (as  he 
says  in  his  Journal),  "in  the  event  of  any  Portuguese 
interfering  with  them  in  his  absence,  to  pitch  him  over- 


340  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

board ! "  Through  his  influence  arrangements  were  made, 
as  we  shall  see,  for  conveying  them  to  the  Cape.  Mr.  R. 
M.  Ballantyne,  in  his  Six  MontJis  at  the  Cape,  tells  us  that 
he  found,  some  years  afterward,  among  the  most  efficient 
teachers  in  St.  George's  Orphanage,  Cape  Town,  one  of 
these  black  girls,  named  Dauma,  whom  Bishop  Mackenzie 
had  personally  rescued  and  carried  on  his  shoulders,  and 
whom  Livingstone  now  rescued  a  second  time. 

Livingstone's  plan  for  himself  was  to  sail  to  Bombay  in 
the  "  Lady  Nyassa,"  and  endeavor  to  sell  her  there,  before 
returning  home.  The  Portuguese  would  have  liked  to  get 
her,  to  employ  her  as  a  slaver — "  But,"  he  wrote  to  his 
daughter  (10th  August,  1863),  "  I  would  rather  see  her  go 
down  to  the  depths  of  the  Indian  Ocean  than  that.  We 
have  not  been  able  to  do  all  that  we  intended  for  this 
country,  owing  to  the  jealousy  and  slave-hunting  of  the 
Portuguese.  They  have  hindered  us  effectually  by  sweep- 
ing away  the  population  into  slavery.  Thousands  have 
perished,  and  wherever  we  go  human  skeletons  appear. 
I  suppose  that  our  Government  could  not  prevail  on  the 
Portuguese  to  put  a  stop  to  this ;  so  we  are  recalled.  I  am 
only  sorry  that  we  ever  began  near  these  slavers,  but  the 
great  men  of  Portugal  professed  so  loudly  their  eager 
desire  to  help  vis  (and  in  the  case  of  the  late  King  I  think 
there  was  sincerity),  that  I  believed  them,  and  now  find 
out  that  it  was  all  for  show  in  Europe.  ...  If  missions 
were  established  as  we  hoped,  I  should  still  hope  for  good 
being  done  to  this  land,  but  the  new  Bishop  had  to  pay 
fourpence  for  every  pound  weight  of  calico  he  bought, 
and  calico  is  as  much  currency  here  as  money  is  in  Glas- 
gow. It  looks  as  if  they  wished  to  prohibit  any  one  els© 
coming,  and,  unfortunately,  Bishop  Tozer,  a  good  man 
enough,  lacks  courage.  .  .  .  What  a  mission  it  would  be 
if  there  were  no  difficulties — nothing  but  walking  about 
in  slippers  made  by  admiring  young  ladies!  Hey!  that 
would  not  suit  me.  It  would  give  me  the  doldrums ;  but 
there  are  many  tastes  in  the  world,** 


LAST  TWO  YEARS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION.     341 

Looking  back  on  the  work  of  the  last  six  years,  while 
deeply  grieved  that  the  great  object  of  the  Expedition  had 
not  been  achieved,  Dr.  Livingstone  was  able  to  point  to 
some  important  results : 

1.  The  discovery  of  the  Kongone  harbor,  and  the  ascer- 
taining of  the  condition  of  the  Zambesi  River,  and  its  fit- 
ness for  navigation. 

2.  The  ascertaining  of  the  capacity  of  the  soil.  It  was 
found  to  be  admirably  adapted  for  indigo  and  cotton,  as 
well  as  tobacco,  castor-oil,  and  sugar.  Its  great  fertility 
was  shown  by  its  gigantic  grasses,  and  abundant  crops  of 
corn  and  maize.  The  highlands  were  free  from  tsetse  and 
mosquitoes.  The  drawback  to  all  this  was  the  occurrence 
of  periodical  droughts,  once  every  few  years. 

But  every  fine  feature  of  the  country  was  bathed  in 
gloom  by  the  slave-trade.  The  image  left  in  Dr.  Living- 
stone's mind  was  not  that  of  the  rich,  sunny,  luxuriant 
country,  but  that  of  the  woe  and  wretchedness  of  the 
people.  The  real  service  of  the  Expedition  was,  that  it 
had  exposed  slavery  at  its  fountain-head,  and  in  all  its 
phases.  First,  there  was  the  internal  slave-trade  between 
hostile  native  tribes.  Then,  there  were  the  slave-traders 
from  the  coast,  Arabs,  or  half-caste  Portuguese,  for  whom 
natives  were  encouraged  to  collect  slaves  by  all  the  horrible 
means  of  marauding  and  murder.  And  further,  there 
were  the  parties  sent  out  from  Portuguese  and  Arab  coast 
towns,  with  cloth  and  beads,  muskets  and  ammunition. 
The  destructive  and  murderous  effects  of  the  last  were  the 
climax  of  the  system. 

Dr.  Livingstone  had  seen  nothing  to  make  him  regard 
the  African  as  of  a  different  species  from  the  rest  of  the 
human  family.  Nor  was  he  the  lowest  of  the  species.  He 
had  a  strong  frame  and  a  wonderfully  persistent  vitality, 
was  free  from  many  European  diseases,  and  could  with- 
stand privations  with  wonderful  light-heartedness. 

He  did  not  deem  it  necessary  formally  to  answer  a 


34?,  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

question  sometimes  put,  whether  the  African  had  enough 
of  intellect  to  receive  Christianity.  The  reception  of 
Christianity  did  not  depend  on  intellect.  It  depended,  as 
Sir  James  Stephen  had  remarked,  on  a  spiritual  intuition, 
which  was  not  the  fruit  of  intellectual  culture.  But,  in 
fact,  the  success  of  missions  on  the  West  Coast  showed  that 
not  only  could  the  African  be  converted  to  Christianity, 
but  that  Christianity  might  take  root  and  be  cordially 
supported  by  the  African  race. 

It  was  the  accursed  slave-trade,  promoted  by  the  Portu- 
guese, that  had  frustrated  everything.  For  some  time  to 
come  his  efforts  and  his  prayers  must  be  directed  to  getting 
influential  men  to  see  to  this,  so  that  one  way  or  other  the 
trade  might  be  abolished  forever.  The  hope  of  obtaining 
access  to  the  heart  of  Africa  by  another  route  than  that 
through  the  Portuguese  settlements  was  still  in  Living- 
stone's heart.  He  would  go  home,  but  only  for  a  few 
months ;  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  he  would  return 
to  look  for  a  new  route  to  the  interior. 


qUILIMANE  TO  BOMBAY.  ^'^ 


CHAPTER  XVIi 

QUILIMANE  TO  BOMBAY  AND  ENGLAND. 

A.D.  1864. 

Livingstone  returns  the  "  Pioneer"  to  the  Navy,  and  is  to  sail  in  the  "  Nyassa" 
to  Bombay — Terrific  circular  storm — Imminent  peril  of  the  "Nyassa" — He 
reaches  Mozambique — Letter  to  his  daughter — Proceeds  to  Zanzibar — His 
engineer  leaves  him — Scanty  crew  of  "Nyassa" — Livingstone  captain  and 
engineer — Peril  of  the  voyage  of  2500  miles — Risk  of  the  monsoons — The 
"Nyassa"  becalmed — Illness  of  the  men — Remarks  on  African  travel — 
Flying-fish — Dolphins — Curiosities  of  his  Journal — Idea  of  a  colony — Furi- 
ous squall — Two  sea-serpents  seen — More  squalls — The  **  Nyassa"  enters 
Bombay  harbor — Is  unnoticed — First  visit  from  officers  with  Custom-house 
schedules — How  filled  up — Attention  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere  and  others — Living- 
stone goes  with  the  Governor  to  Dapuri — His  feelings  on  landing  in  India — 
Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear — He  visits  mission-schools,  etc.,  at  Poonah — 
Slaving  in  Persian  Gulf — Returns  to  Bombay — Leaves  two  boys  with  Dr. 
Wilson — Borrows  passage-money  and  sails  for  England — At  Aden — At  Alex- 
andria— Reaches  Charing  Cross — Encouragement  derived  from  his  Bombay 
visit — ^Two  projects  contemplated  on  his  way  home. 

On  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi,  Dr.  Livingstone 
was  fortunate  in  falling  in,  on  the  13th  February,  with 
H.M.S.  "Orestes,"  which  was  joined  on  the  14th  by  the' 
"  Ariel."  The  "  Orestes"  took  the  "  Pioneer"  in  tow,  and 
the  "Ariel"  the  "Lady  Nyassa,"  and  brought  them  to 
Mozambique.  The  day  after  they  set  out,  a  circular  storm 
passed  over  them,  raging  with  the  utmost  fury,  and  cre- 
ating the  greatest  danger.  Often  as  Dr.  Livingstone  had 
been  near  the  gates  of  death,  he  was  never  nearer  than 
now.  He  had  been  offered  a  passage  on  board  the  "  Ariel," 
but  while  there  was  danger  he  would  not  leave  the  "  Lady 
Nyassa."  Had  the  latter  not  been  an  excellent  sea-ship 
she  could  not  have  survived  the  tempest;  all  the  greater 


344  DA  VID  LIVINGSTONE, 

was  Dr.  Livingstone's  grief  that  she  hai  never  reached 
the  lake  for  which  she  was  adapted  so  well. 

Writing  to  his  daughter  Agnes  from  Mozambique,  he 
gives  a  very  graphic  account  of  the  storm,  after  telling  her 
the  manner  of  their  leaving  the  Zambesi ; 

^^  Mozambique,  2Ath  Feb.,  1864. — When  our  patience  had  been  well 
nigh  exhausted  the  river  rose  and  we  steamed  gladly  down  the  Shir6 
on  the  19th  of  last  month.  An  accident  detained  us  some  time,  but 
on  the  1st  February  we  were  close  by  Morumbala,  where  the  Bishop 
[Tozer]  passed  a  short  time  before  bolting  out  of  the  country.  I  took 
two  members  of  the  Mission  away  in  the  'Pioneer,'  and  thirteen 
women  and  children,  whom  having  liberated  we  did  not  like  to  leave 
to  become  the  certain  prey  of  slavers  again.  The  Bishop  left  twenty- 
five  boys,  too,  and  these  also  I  took  with  me,  hoping  to  get  them 
conveyed  to  the  Cape,  where  I  trust  they  may  become  acquainted  with 
our  holy  religion.  We  had  thus  quite  a  swarm  on  board,  all  very 
glad  to  get  away  from  a  land  of  slaves.  There  were  many  more 
liberated,  but  we  took  only  the  helpless  and  those  very  anxious  to  be 
free  and  with  English  people.  Those  who  could  cultivate  the  soil 
we  encouraged  to  do  so,  and  left  up  the  river.  Only  one  boy  was 
unwilling  to  go,  and  he  was  taken  by  the  Bishop.  It  is  a  great  pity 
that  the  Bishop  withdrew  the  Mission,  for  he  had  a  noble  chance  of 
doing  great  things.  The  captives  would  have  formed  a  fine  school,  and 
as  they  had  no  parents  he  could  have  educated  them  as  he  liked. 

"  When  we  reached  the  sea-coast  at  Luabo  we  met  a  man-of-war, 
H.M.S.  *  Orestes.*  I  went  to  her  with  '  Pioneer,'  and  sent  ^  Lady 
Nyassa'  round  by  inland  canal  to  Kongone.  Next  day  I  went  into 
Kongone  in  'Pioneer'}  took  our  things  out  of  her,  and  handed  her 
over  to  the  ofiicers  of  the  'Orestes.'  Then  H.M.S  *  Ariel*  came  and 
took  '  Nyassa'  in  tow,  '  Orestes'  having  '  Pioneer.'  Captain  Chap- 
man of  '  Ariel'  very  kindly  invited  me  on  board  to  save  me  from  the 
knocking  about  of  the  "  Lady  Nyassa,'  but  I  did  not  like  to  leave  so 
long  as  there  was  any  danger,  and  accepted  his  invitation  for  Mr.  Waller, 
who  was  dreadfully  sea-sick.  On  15th  we  were  caught  by  a  hurricane 
which  whirled  the  'Ariel'  right  round.  Her  sails,  quickly  put  to 
rights,  were  again  backed  so  that  the  ship  was  driven  backward  and  a 
hawser  wound  itself  round  her  screw,  so  as  to  stop  the  engines.  By 
this  time  she  was  turned  so  as  to  be  looking  right  across  'Lady  Nyassa,* 
and  the  wind  alone  propelling  her  as  if  to  go  over  the  little  vessel. 
I  saw  no  hope  of  escape  except  by  catching  a  rope's-end  of  the  big 
ship  as  she  passed  over  us,  but  by  God's  goodness  she  glided  past,  and 
ive  felt  fr«e  to  breathe.    That  oight  it  blew  a  furious  gale.    The  captain 


QUILIMANE  TO  BOMBAY.  345 

ofi^ed  to  lower  a  boat  if  I  would  come  to  the  *  Ariel/  but  it  would 
have  endangered  all  in  the  boat :  the  waves  dashed  so  hard  against 
the  sides  of  the  vessel,  it  might  have  been  swamped,  and  my  going 
away  would  have  taken  heart  out  of  those  that  remained.  We  then 
passed  a  terrible  night,  but  the  *  Lady  Nyassa'  did  wonderfully  well, 
rising  like  a  little  duck  over  the  foaming  billows.  She  took  in  spray 
alone,  and  no  green  water.  The  man-of-war's  people  expected  that 
she  would  go  down,  and  it  was  wonderful  to  see  how  well  she  did 
when  the  big  man-of-war,  only  about  200  feet  off,  plunged  so  as  to 
show  a  large  portion  of  copper  on  her  bottom,  then  down  behind 
so  as  to  have  the  sea  level  with  the  top  of  her  bulwarks.  A  boat 
hung  at  that  level  was  smashed.  If  we  had  gone  down  we  could  not 
have  been  helped  in  the  least — pitch  dark,  and  wind  whistling  above; 
the  black  folks,  'ane  booking  here,  anither  there,'  and  wanting  ua  to 
go  to  the  ^  bank.'  On  18th  the  weather  moderated,  and,  the  captain 
repeating  his  very  kind  offer,  I  went  on  board  with  a  good  conscience, 
and  even  then  the  boat  got  damaged.  I  was  hoisted  up  in  it,  and  got 
rested  in  what  was  quite  a  steady  ship  as  compared  with  the  '  Lady 
Nyassa.'  The  'Ariel'  was  three  days  cutting  off  the  hawser,  though 
nine  feet  under  water,  the  men  diving  and  cutting  it  with  immensely 
long  chisels.  On  the  19th  we  spoke  to  a  Liverpool  ship,  requesting 
the  captain  to  report  me  alive,  a  silly  report  having  been  circulated  by 
the  Portuguese  that  I  had  been  killed  at  Lake  Nyassa,  and  on  the 
24th  we  entered  Mozambique  harbor,  very  thankful  for  our  kind  and 
merciful  preservation.  The  *  Orestes'  has  not  arrived  with  the  *  Pioneer,* 
though  she  is  a  much  more  powerful  vessel  than  the  '  Ariel.'  Here 
we  have  a  fort,  built  in  1500,  and  said  to  be  of  stones  brought  from 
Lisbon.  It  is  a  square  massive-looking  structure.  The  town  adjacent 
is  Arab  in  appearance.  The  houses  flat-roofed  and  colored  white,  pink, 
and  yellow ;  streets  narrow,  with  plenty  of  slaves  on  them.  It  is  on 
an  island,  the  mainland  on  the  north  being  about  a  mile  off." 

The  "  Pioneer"  was  delivered  over  to  the  Navy,  being 
Her  Majesty's  property,  and  proceeded  to  the  Cape  with 
the  "  Valorous,"  Mr.  Waller  being  on  board  with  a  portion 
of  the  mission  flock.  Of  Mr.  Waller  (subsequently  editor 
of  the  Last  Journals)  Dr.  Livingstone  remarked  that  "  he 
continued  his  generous  services  to  all  connected  with  the 
Mission,  whether  white  or  black,  till  they  were  no  longer 
needed ;  his  conduct  to  them  throughout  was  truly  noble, 
and  worthy  of  the  highest  praise." 

After  remaining  some  weeks  at  Mozambique  for  thorough 


346  DAVIB  LIVINGSTONE, 

repairs,  the  "  Lady  Nyassa"  left  on  16th  April  for  Johanna 
and  Zanzibar.  She  was  unable  to  touch  at  the  former 
place,  and  reached  Zanzibar  on  the  24th.  Offers  were 
made  for  her  there,  which  might  have  led  to  her  being 
sold,  but  her  owner  did  not  think  them  sufficient,  and  in 
point  of  fact,  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  part  with 
her.  He  clung  to  the  hope  that  she  might  yet  be  useful, 
and  to  sell  her  seemed  equivalent  to  abandon  all  hope  of 
carrying  out  his  philanthropic  schemes.  At  all  events,  till 
he  should  consult  Mr.  Young  he  would  not  sell  her  at 
such  a  sacrifice.  At  Zanzibar  he  found  that  a  naval  gentle- 
man, who  had  been  lately  there,  had  not  spoken  of  him  in 
the  most  complimentary  terms.  But  it  had  not  hurt  him 
with  his  best  friends.  "  Indeed,  I  find  that  evil-speaking 
against  me  has,  by  the  good  providence  of  my  God,  turned 
rather  to  my  benefit.  I  got  two  of  my  best  friends  by 
being  spoken  ill  of,  for  they  found  me  so  different  from 
what  they  had  been  led  to  expect  that  they  befriended  me 
m^re  than  they  otherwise  would  have  done.  It  is  the  good 
hand  of  Him  who  has  all  in  his  power  that  influences 
other  hearts  to  show  me  kindness." 

The  only  available  plan  now  was  to  cross  the  Indian 
Ocean  for  Bombay,  or  possibly  Aden,  in  the  "  Nyassa"  and 
leave  the  ship  there  till  he  should  make  a  run  home,  con- 
sult with  his  friends  as  to  the  future,  and  find  means  for 
the  prosecution  of  his  work.  At  Zanzibar  a  new  difficulty 
arose.  Mr.  Rae,  the  engineer,  who  had  now  been  with  him 
for  many  years,  and  with  whom,  despite  his  peculiarities, 
he  got  on  very  well,  signified  his  intention  of  leaving  him. 
He  had  the  offer  of  a  good  situation,  and  wished  to  accept 
of  it.  He  was  not  without  compunctions  at  leaving  his 
friend  in  the  lurch,  and  told  Livingstone  that  if  he  had 
had  no  offer  for  the  ship  he  would  have  gone  with  him, 
but  as  he  had  declined  the  offer  made  to  him,  he  did  not 
feel  under  obligation  to  do  so.  Livingstone  was  too 
generous  to  press  him  to  remain.     It  was  impossible  to 


qUILIMANE  TO  BOMBAY,  347 

supply  Mr.  Rae's  place,  and  if  anything  should  go  wrong 
with  the  engines,  what  was  to  be  done  ?  The  entire  crew 
of  the  vessel  consisted  of  four  Europeans;  namely.  Dr. 
Livingstone — "  skipper,"  one  stoker,  one  carpenter,  and  one 
sailor ;  seven  native  Zambesians,  who,  till  they  volunteered, 
had  never  seen  the  sea,  and  two  boys,  one  of  whom  was 
Chuma,  afterward  his  attendant  on  the  last  journey.  With 
this  somewhat  sorry  complement,  and  fourteen  tons  of 
coal,  Dr.  Livingstone  set  out  on  30th  April,  on  a  voyage 
of  2500  miles,  over  an  ocean  which  he  had  never  crossed. 

It  was  a  very  perilous  enterprise,  for  he  was  informed 
that  the  breaking  of  the  monsoon  occurred  at  the  end  of 
May  or  the  beginning  of  June.  This,  as  he  came  to 
think,  was  too  early ;  but  in  any  case,  he  would  come  very 
near  the  dangerous  time.  As  he  wrote  to  one  of  his 
friends,  he  felt  jammed  into  a  corner,  and  what  could  he 
do  ?  He  believed  from  the  best  information  he  could  get 
that  he  would  reach  Bombay  in  eighteen  days.  Had  any 
one  told  him  that  he  would  be  forty-five  days  at  sea,  and 
that  for  twenty-five  of  these  his  ship  would  be  becalmed, 
and  even  when  she  had  a  favorable  wind  would  not  sail 
fast,  even  he  would  have  looked  pale  at  the  thought  of 
what  was  before  him.  The  voyage  was  certainly  a  memor- 
able one,  and  has  only  escaped  fame  by  the  still  greater 
wonders  performed  by  Livingstone  on  land. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  voyage,  he  made  considerable 
way,  but  Collyer,  one  of  his  white  men,  was  prostrated  by 
a  bilious  attack.  However,  one  of  the  black  men  speedily 
learned  to  steer,  and  took  Dr.  Livingstone's  place  at  the 
wheel.  Hardly  was  Collyer  better  when  Pennell,  another 
of  his  men,  was  seized.  The  chief  foes  of  the  ship  were 
currents  and  calms.  Owing  to  the  illness  of  the  men  they 
could  not  steam,  and  the  sails  were  almost  useless.  Even 
steam,  when  they  got  it  up,  enabled  them  only  to  creep. 
On  20th  May,  Livingstone,  after  recording  but  sixteen 
knots  in  the  last  twenty-four  hours,  says  in  his  Journal ; 


348  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

"  This  very  unusual  weather  has  a  very  depressing  influ- 
ence on  my  mind.  I  often  feel  as  if  I  am  to  die  on  this 
voyage,  and  wish  I  had  sent  the  accounts  to  the  Govern- 
ment, as  also  my  chart  to  the  Zambesi.  I  often  wish  that 
I  may  be  permitted  to  do  something  for  the  benighted  of 
Africa.  I  shall  have  nothing  to  do  at  home;  by  the  failure 
of  the  Universities  Mission  my  work  seems  vain.  No  fruit 
likely  to  come  from  J.  Moffat's  mission  either.  Have  I  not 
labored  in  vain  ?  Am  I  to  be  cut  off  before  I  do  anything 
to  effect  permanent  improvement  in  Africa?  I  have  been 
unprofitable  enough,  but  may  do  something  yet,  in  giving 
information.  If  spared,  God  grant  that  I  may  be  more 
faithful  than  I  have  been,  and  may  He  open  up  the  way 
for  me !" 

Next  day  the  weather  was  as  still  as  ever;  the  sea  a 
glassy  calm,  with  a  hot  glaring  sun,  and  sharks  stalking 
about.  "All  ill-natured,"  says  honest  Livingstone,  "and 
in  this  I  am  sorry  to  feel  compelled  to  join." 

There  is  no  sign  of  ill-nature,  however,  in  the  follow- 
ing remarks  on  African  travel,  in  his  Journal  for  23d 
May: 

"In  traveling  in  Africa,  with  the  specific  object  in  view  of  ameliora- 
ting the  benighted  condition  of  the  country,  every  act  is  ennobled.  In 
obtaining  shelter  for  the  night,  and  exchanging  the  customary  civilities, 
purchasing  food  for  one's  party  and  asking  the  news  of  the  country,  and 
answering  in  their  own  polite  way  any  inquiries  made  respecting  the 
object  of  the  journey,  we  begin  to  spread  information  respecting  that 
people  by  whose  agency  their  land  will  yet  be  made  free  from  the  evils 
that  now  oppress  it.  The  mere  animal  pleasure  of  traveling  is  very 
great  The  elastic  muscles  have  been  exercised.  Fresh  and  healthy 
blood  circulates  in  the  veins,  the  eye  is  clear,  the  step  firm,  but  the  day's 
exertion  has  been  enough  to  make  rest  thoroughly  enjoyable.  There  is 
always  the  influence  of  the  remote  chances  of  danger  on  the  mind, 
either  from  men  or  wild  beasts,  and  there  is  the  fellow-feeling  drawn  out 
to  one's  humble,  hardy  companions,  with  whom  a  community  of  interests 
and  perils  renders  one  friends  indeed.  The  effect  of  travel  on  my  mind 
has  been  to  make  it  more  self-reliant,  confident  of  resources  and  presence 
of  mind.    On  the  body  the  limbs  become  well-knit,  the  muscles  after 


Q  VILIMANE  TO  B  0MB A  F.  349 

six  months'  tramping  are  as  hard  as  a  board,  the  countenance  bronzed 
as  was  Adam's,  and  no  dyspepsia. 

"  In  remaining  at  any  spot,  it  is  to  work.  The  sweat  of  the  brow  is 
no  longer  a  curse  when  one  works  for  God ;  it  is  converted  into  a  bleea- 
ing.  It  is  a  tonic  to  the  system.  The  charms  of  repose  cannot  b« 
known  without  the  excitement  of  exertion.  Most  travelers  seem  taken 
up  with  the  difficulties  of  the  way,  the  pleasures  of  roaming  free  in  th« 
most  picturesque  localities  seem  forgotten." 

Toward  tlie  end  of  May  a  breeze  at  last  springs  up; 
many  flying-fish  come  on  board,  and  Livingstone  is  as 
usual  intent  on  observation.  He  observes  them  fly  with 
great  ease  a  hundred  yards,  the  dolphin  pursuing  them 
swiftly,  but  not  so  swiftly  as  they  can  fly.  He  notices  that 
the  dolphin's  bright  colors  afford  a  warning  to  his  enemies, 
and  give  them  a  chance  of  escape.  Incessant  activity  is  a 
law  in  obtaining  food.  If  the  prey  could  be  caught  with 
ease,  and  no  warning  were  given,  the  balance  would  be 
turned  against  the  feebler  animals,  and  carnivora  alone 
would  prevail.  The  cat  shows  her  shortened  tail,  and  the 
rattlesnake  shakes  his  tail,  to  give  warning  to  the  prey. 
The  flying-fish  has  large  eyes  in  proportion  to  other  fish, 
yet  leaps  on  board  very  often  at  night,  and  kills  himself 
by  the  concussion. 

Livingstone  is  in  great  perplexity  what  to  do.  At  the 
rate  at  which  his  ship  is  going  it  would  take  him  fifteen 
days  to  reach  Bombay,  being  one  day  before  the  breaking 
of  the  monsoon,  which  would  be  running  it  too  close  to 
danger.  He  thinks  of  going  to  Aden,  but  that  would 
require  him  to  go  first  to  Maculla  for  water  and  provisions. 
When  he  tries  Aden  the  wind  is  against  him ;  so  he  turns 
the  ship's  head  to  Bombay,  though  he  has  water  enough 
for  but  ten  or  twelve  days  on  short  allowance.  "  May  the 
Almighty  be  gracious  to  us  all,  and  help  usl" 

His  Journal  is  a  curious  combination  of  nautical  ob- 
servations and  reflections  on  Africa  and  his  work.  We 
seem  to  hear  him  pacing  his  little  deck,  and  thinking 
aloud: 


350  DAVID  LIVINGSTONR 

"  The  idea  of  a  colony  in  Africa,  as  the  term  colony  is  usually  under- 
Btood,  cannot  be  entertained.  English  races  cannot  compete  in  manual 
labor  of  any  kind  with  the  natives,  but  they  can  take  a  leading  part  in 
managing  the  land,  improving  the  quality,  in  creating  the  quantity  and 
extending  the  varieties  of  the  productions  of  the  soil ;  and  by  taking  a 
lead,  too,  in  trade,  and  in  all  public  matters,  the  Englishman  would  be 
an  unmixed  advantage  to  every  one  below  and  around  him,  for  he  would 
fill  a  place  which  is  now  practically  vacant. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  country ;  it  is  so  different  from 
all  preconceived  notions.  The  country  in  many  parts  rises  up  to 
plateaus,  slopes  up  to  which  are  diversified  by  valleys  lined  with  trees ; 
or  here  and  there  rocky  bluffs  jut  out;  the  plateaus  themselves  are  open 
prairies  covered  with  grass  dotted  over  with  trees,  and  watered  by 
numerous  streams.  Nor  are  they  absolutely  flat,  their  surface  is  varied 
by  picturesque  undulations.  Deep  gorges  and  ravines  leading  d«wn  to 
the  lower  levels  offer  special  beauties,  and  landscapes  from  the  edges 
of  the  higher  plateaus  are  in  their  way  unequaled.  Thence  the  winding 
of  the  Shir6  may  be  followed  like  a  silver  thread  or  broad  lake  with  its 
dark  mountain  mass  behind. 

"  I  think  that  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  missionaries  have  treated 
me  badly  in  trying  to  make  me  the  scapegoat  of  their  own  blunders  and 
inefficiency.  .  .  ,  But  I  shall  try  equitably  and  gently  to  make 
allowances  for  human  weakness,  though  that  weakness  has  caused  me 
much  suffering." 

On  28th  May  they  had  something  like  a  foretaste  of  the 
breaking  of  the  monsoon,  though  happily  that  event  did 
not  yet  take  place.  "  At  noon  a  dense  cloud  came  down 
on  us  from  e.  and  n.e.,  and  blew  a  furious  gale ;  tore  sails ; 
the  ship,  as  is  her  wont,  rolled  broadside  into  it,  and  nearly 
rolled  quite  over.  Everything  was  hurled  hither  and 
thither.  It  lasted  half  an  hour,  then  passed  with  a  little 
rain.  It  was  terrible  while  it  lasted.  We  had  calm  after 
it,  and  sky  brightened  up.     Thank  God  for  his  goodness." 

In  June  there  was  more  wind,  but  a  peculiarity  in  the 
construction  of  the  ship  impeded  her  progress  through  the 
water.  It  was  still  very  tedious  and  trying.  Livingstone 
seems  to  have  been  reading  books  that  would  take  his 
attention  off  the  very  trying  weather. 

"  Lord  Ravensworth  has  been  trying  for  twenty  years  to 
render  the  lines  in  Horace — 


QUILIMANE  TO  BOMBAY.  351 

'  Dulce  ridentem  Lalagen  amabo 
Dulce  loquentem.' 

And  after  every  conceivable  variety  of  form  this  is  the 
best: 

*The  softly  speaking  Lalage, 
The  softly  smiling  still  for  me.* 

Pity  he  had  nothing  better  to  engage  his  powers,  for 
instance  the  translating  of  the  Bible  into  one  of  the 
languages  of  the  world." 

The  10th  of  June  was  introduced  by  a  furious  squall 
which  tore  the  fore  square-sail  to  ribbons.  A  curious 
sight  is  seen  at  sea:  "two  serpents — said  to  be  often  seen 
on  the  coast.  One  dark  olive,  with  light  yellow  rings 
round  it,  and  flattened  tail;  the  other  lighter  in  color. 
They  seem  to  be  salt-water  animals." 

Next  day,  a  wet  scowling  morning.  Frequent  rains, 
and  thunder  in  the  distance.  "A  poor  weak  creature. 
Permit  me  to  lean  on  an  all-powerful  arm." 

"  The  squalls  usually  come  up  right  against  the  wind, 
and  cast  all  our  sails  aback.  This  makes  them  so  danger- 
ous, active  men  are  required  to  trim  them  to  the  other 
side.  We  sighted  land  a  little  before  12,  the  high  land 
of  Rutnagerry.  I  thought  of  going  in,  but  finding  that 
we  have  twenty-eight  hours^  steam,  I  changed  my  mind, 
and  pushed  on  for  Bombay,  115  miles  distant.  "We  are 
nearer  the  land  down  here  than  we  like,  but  our  n.w. 
wind  has  prevented  us  from  making  northing.  We  hope 
for  a  little  change,  and  possibly  may  get  in  nicely.  The 
good  Lord  of  all  help  us  I 

"At  3  P.M.  wind  and  sea  high;  very  hazy.  Paining, 
with  a  strong  head  wind ;  at  8  p.m.  a  heavy  squall  came 
off  the  land  on  our  east.  Wind  whistled  through  the 
rigging  loudly,  and  we  made  but  little  progress  steaming. 
At  11  P.M.  a  nice  breeze  sprang  up  from  east  and  helped 
us.    About  12  a  white  patch  reported  seemed  a  shoal,  but 


352  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE: 

none  is  marked  on  the  chart.  Steered  a  point  more  out 
from  land ;  another  white  patch  marked  in  middle  watch. 
Sea  and  wind  lower  at  3  a.m.  At  daylight  we  found  our- 
selves abreast  high  land  at  least  500  feet  above  sea-level. 
Wind  light,  and  from  east,  which  enables  us  to  use  fore 
and  aft  try-sails.  A  groundswell  on,  but  we  are  getting 
along,  and  feel  very  thankful  to  Him  who  has  favored  us. 
Hills  not  so  beautifully  colored  as  those  in  Africa.     .     .     . 

"At  7  P.M.  a  furious  squall  came  off  the  land;  could 
scarcely  keep  the  bonnets  on  our  heads.  Pitchy  dark, 
except  the  white  curl  on  the  waves,  which  was  phos- 
phorescent. Seeing  that  we  could  not  enter  the  harbor, 
though  we  had  been  near,  I  stopped  the  steaming  and 
got  up  the  try-sails,  and  let  Pennell,  who  has  been  up 
thirty  hours,  get  a  sleep. 

*^lZth  June,  1864. — We  found  that  we  had  come  north 
only  about  ten  miles.  We  had  calms  after  the  squall, 
and  this  morning  the  sea  is  as  smooth  as  glass,  and  a 
thick  haze  over  the  land.  A  scum  as  of  dust  on  face  of 
water.  We  are,  as  near  as  I  can  guess  by  the  chart,  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  the  port  of  Bombay.  Came  to 
Choul  Rock  at  mid-day,  and,  latitude  agreeing  thereto, 
pushed  on  n.  by  w.  till  we  came  to  light-ship.  It  was 
so  hazy  inland  we  could  see  nothing  whatever,  then  took 
the  direction  by  chart,  and  steered  right  into  Bombay 
most  thankfully.  I  mention  God's  good  providence  over 
me,  and  beg  that  He  may  accept  my  spared  life  for  his 
service." 

Between  the  fog  and  the  small  size  of  the  Nyassa,  her 
entrance  into  the  harbor  was  not  observed.  Among  Liv- 
ingstone's first  acts  on  anchoring  was  to  give  handsome 
gratuities  to  those  who  had  shared  his  danger  and  helped 
him  in  his  straits.  Going  ashore,  he  called  on  the  Governor 
and  the  police  magistrate,  but  the  one  was  absent  and  the 
other  busy,  and  so  he  returned  to  the  ship  unrecognized. 
The  schedules  of  the  custom-house  sent  to  be  filled   up 


qUILIMANE  TO  BOMBAY,  353 

were  his  first  recognition  by  the  authorities  of  Bombay. 
He  replied  that  except  a  few  bales  of  cfiUco  and  a  box 
of  beads  he  had  no  merchandise ;  he  was  consigned  to  no 
one ;  the  seamen  had  only  their  clothes,  and  he  did  not 
know  a  single  soul  in  Bombay.  As  soon  as  his  arrival 
was  known  every  attention  was  showered  on  him  by  Sir 
Bartle  Frere,  the  Governor,  and  others.  They  had  been 
looking  out  for  him,  but  he  had  eluded  their  notice.  The 
Governor  was  residing  at  Dapuri,  and  on  his  invitation 
Livingstone  went  there.  Stopping  at  Poona,  he  called  on 
the  missionaries,  and  riding  on  an  elephant  he  saw  some 
of  the  "  lions"  of  the  place.  Coloiiel  Stewart,  who  accom- 
panied him,  threw  some  light  on  the  sea-serpent.  "He 
told  us  that  the  yellow  sea-serpent  which  we  had  seen 
before  reaching  Bombay  is  poisonous;  there  are  two  kinds 
—one  dark  olive,  the  other  pale  lemon  color;  both  have 
rings  of  brighter  yellow  on  their  tails." 

Landing  in  India  was  a  strange  experience,  as  he  tells 
Sir  Thomas  Maclear.  "  To  walk  among  the  teeming  thou- 
sands of  all  classes  of  population,  and  see  so  many  things 
that  reading  and  pictures  had  made  familiar  to  the  mind, 
was  very  interesting.  The  herds  of  the  buffaloes,  kept 
I  believe  for  their  mi)k,  invariably  made  the  question 
glance  across  the  min/i, '  Where's  your  rifle  ?'  Nor  could 
I  look  at  the  elephau.ts  either  without  something  of  the 
same  feeling.  Hundreds  of  bales  of  cotton  were  lying  on 
the  wharves." 

"2()th  June,  1864.— Went  with  Captain  Leith  to  Poona 
to  visit  the  Free  Chui  ch  Mission  Schools  there,  under  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Mitchell,  Gardner,  etc.  A  very  fine  school  of 
500  boys  and  young  men  answered  questions  very  well. 
.  .  .  All  collected  together,  and  a  few  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen for  whom  I  answered  questions  about  Africa.  "We 
then  went  to  a  girls'  school ;  the  girls  sang  very  nicely, 
then  acted  a  little  play.  There  were  different  castes  in  all 
fehe  schools,  and  quite  mixed.    After  this  we  went  to  Col- 


354  DAVID  LIVING8T0NR 

lege,  where  young  men  are  preparing  for  degrees  of  the 
University  under  Dr.  Haug  and  Mr.  Wordsworth;  then 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Orphanage,  where  200  girls  are 
assembled,  clothed,  and  fed  under  a  French  Lady  Supe- 
rior— dormitory  clean  and  well  aired,  but  many  had  scro- 
fulous-looking sore  eyes;  then  home  to  see  some  friends 
whom  Lady  Frere  had  invited,  to  save  me  the  trouble  of 
calling  on  them.     Saw  Mr.  Cowan's  daughter." 

"21si  June,  1864. —  .  .  .  Had  a  conversation  with 
the  Governor  after  breakfast  about  the  slaving  going  on 
toward  the  Persian  Gulf.  His  idea  is  that  they  are  now 
only  beginning  to  put  a  stop  to  slavery — they  did  not 
know  of  it  previously.  .  .  .  The  merchants  of  Bombay 
have  got  the  whole  of  the  trade  of  East  Africa  thrown  on 
their  hands,  and  would,  it  is  thought,  engage  in  an  effort 
to  establish  commerce  on  the  coast.  The  present  Sultan 
is,  for  an  Arab,  likely  to  do  a  good  deal.  He  asked  if  I 
would  undertake  to  be  consul  at  a  settlement,  but  I  think 
I  have  not  experience  enough  for  a  position  of  that  kind 
among  Europeans." 

On  returning  to  Bombay,  he  saw  the  missionary  institU' 
tions  of  the  Scotch  Established  and  Free  Churches,  and 
arranged  with  Dr.  Wilson  of  the  latter  mission  to  take  his 
two  boys,  Chuma  and  Wikatani.  He  arranged  also  that 
the  "  Lady  Nyassa,"  which  he  had  not  yet  sold,  should  be 
taken  care  of,  and  borrowing  £133,  10s.  for  the  passage- 
money  of  himself  and  John  Reid,  one  of  his  men,  em* 
barked  for  old  England. 

At  Aden  considerable  rain  had  fallen  lately;  he  observed 
that  there  was  much  more  vegetation  than  when  he  was 
there  before,  and  it  occurred  to  him  that  at  the  time  of 
the  Exodus  the  same  effects  probably  followed  the  storms 
of  rain,  lightning,  and  hail  in  Egypt.  Egypt  was  very 
far  from  green,  so  that  Dr.  Stanley  must  have  visited  it  at 
another  part  of  the  year.  At  Alexandria,  when  he  went 
on  board  the  "Ripon,"  he  found  the  Maharaja  Dhuleep 


BOMBAY  TO  ENGLAND,  365 

jSingh  and  bis  young  Princess — the  girl  he  had  fancied 
and  married  from  an  English  Egyptian  school.  Paris  is 
reached  on  the  21st  July ;  a  day  is  spent  in  resting ;  and 
on  the  evening  of  the  23d  he  reaches  Charing  Cross,  and 
is  regaled  with  what,  after  nearly  eight  years'  absence, 
must  have  been  true  music — ^the  roar  of  the  mighty 
Babylon. 

The  desponding  views  of  his  work  which  we  find  in 
such  entries  in  his  Journal  as  that  of  20th  May  must  not 
be  held  to  express  his  deliberate  mind.  It  must  not  be 
thought  that  he  had  thrown  aside  the  motto  which  had 
helped  him  as  much  as  it  had  helped  his  royal  country- 
man, Robert  Bruce — "Try  again."  He  had  still  some 
arrows  in  his  quiver.  And  his  short  visit  to  Bombay  was 
a  source  of  considerable  encouragement.  The  merchants 
there,  who  had  the  East  African  trade  in  their  hands, 
encouraged  him  to  hope  that  a  settlement  for  honest 
trafiic  might  be  established  to  the  north  of  the  region  over 
which  the  Portuguese  claimed  authority.  As  Livingstone 
moved  homeward  he  was  revolving  two  projects.  The 
first  was  to  expose  the  atrocious  slave-trading  of  the  Por- 
tuguese, which  had  not  only  made  all  his  labor  fruitless, 
but  had  used  his  very  discoveries  as  channels  for  spread- 
ing fresh  misery  over  Africa.  The  thought  warmed  his 
blood,  and  he  felt  like  a  Highlander  with  his  hand  on  his 
claymore.  The  second  project  was  to  find  means  for  a 
new  settlement  at  the  head  of  the  Rovuma,  or  somewhere 
else  beyond  the  Portuguese  lines,  which  he  would  return 
in  the  end  of  the  year  to  establish.  Writing  a  short  book 
might  help  to  accomplish  both  these  projects.  As  yet,  the 
idea  of  finding  the  sources  of  the  Nile  was  not  in  his 
mind.  It  was  at  the  earnest  request  of  others  that  he 
undertook  the  work  that  cost  him  so  many  years  of  suffer- 
ing, and  at  last  his  life. 


356  PA  VLU  LI  VIJS  Cr/ii'OiY^ 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

SECOND   VISIT   HOME. 
A.D.  1864-65, 

Dr.  Livingstone  and  Sir  R.  Murchison — At  Lady  Palmerston*s  reception — at 
other  places  in  London — Sad  news  of  his  sou  Robert — His  early  death — Dr. 
Livingstone  goes  to  Scotland — Pays  visits — Consultation  vrith  Professor 
Syme  as  to  operation — Visit  to  Duke  of  Argyll — to  Ulva — He  meets  Dr. 
Duff — At  launch  of  a  Turkish  frigate — At  Hamilton — Goes  to  Bath  to 
British  Association — Delivers  an  ^^^ddress — Dr.  Colenso — At  funeral  of  Cap- 
tain Speke — Bath  speech  offends  the  Portuguese — Charges  of  Lacerda — He 
visits  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  at  Newstead — Their  great  hospitality — The 
Livingstone  room — He  spends  eight  months  there  writing  his  book — He 
regains  elasticity  and  playfulness — His  book — Charles  Livingstone's  share — 
He  uses  his  influence  for  Dr.  Kirk — Delivers  a  lecture  at  Mansfield — Pro- 
posal made  to  him  by  Sir  R.  Murchison  to  return  to  Africa — Letter  from  Sir 
Roderick — His  reply — He  will  not  cease  to  be  a  missionary — Letter  to  Mr. 
James  Young — Overtures  from  Foreign  Office — Livingstone  displeased — At 
dinner  of  Royal  Academy — His  speech  not  reported — President  Lincoln's 
assassination — Examination  by  Committee  of  House  of  Commons — His 
opinion  on  the  capacity  of  the  negro — He  goes  down  to  Scotland — Tom 
Brown's  School  Days — His  mother  very  ill — She  rallies — He  goes  to  Oxford 
. — Hears  of  his  mother's  death — Returns — He  attends  examination  of  Os- 
well's  school — His  speech — Goes  to  London,  preparing  to  leave — Parts  from 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb — Stays  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton — Last  days  in 
England, 

On  reaching  London,  Dr.  Livingstone  took  up  his 
quarters  at  the  Tavistock  Hotel ;  but  he  had  hardly  swal- 
lowed dinner,  when  he  was  off  to  call  on  Sir  Roderick  and 
Lady  Murchison. 

"  Sir  Roderick  took  me  off  with  him,  just  as  I  was,  to 
Lady  Palmerston's  reception.  My  lady  very  gracious — 
gave  me  tea  herself.  Lord  Palmerston  looking  well.  Had 
two  conversations  with  him  about  slave-trade.    Sir  Rod- 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME,  357 

erick  says  that  he  is  more  iDtent  on  maintaining  his 
policy  on  that  than  on  any  other  thing.  And  so  is  she — 
a  wonderfully  fine,  matronly  lady.  Her  daughters  are 
grown  up.  Lady  Shaftesbury  like  her  mother  in  beauty 
and  grace.  Saw  and  spoke  to  Sir  Charles  Wood  about 
India,  *his  Eastern  Empire,'  as  he  laughingly  called  it. 
Spoke  to  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Somerset.  All  say  very 
polite  things,  and  all  wonderfully  considerate." 

An  invitation  to  dine  with  Lord  Palmerston  on  the  29th 
detained  him  for  a  few  days  from  going  down  to  Scotland. 

"Monday,  25th  July. — Went  to  Foreign  Ofiice.  .  .  . 
Got  a  dress  suit  at  Nicol  &  Co.'s,  and  dined  with  Lord  and 
Lady  Dunmore*  Very  clever  and  intelligent  man,  and 
lady  very  sprightly.  Thence  to  Duchess  of  Wellington's 
reception.  A  grand  company — magnificent  rooms.  Met 
Lord  and  Lady  Colchester,  Mrs.  F.  Peel,  Lady  Emily  Peel, 
Lady  de  Redcliffe,  Lord  Broughton,  Lord  Houghton,  and 
many  more  whose  names  escaped  me.  Ladies  wonderfully 
beautiful — rich  and  rare  were  the  gems  they  wore. 

"26th  July. — Go  to  Wimbledon  with  Mr.  Murray,  and 
see  Sir  Bartle  Frere's  children.  .  .  .  See  Lord  Russell 
• — his  manner  is  very  cold,  as  all  the  Russells  are.  Saw 
Mr.  Layard  too;  he  is  warm  and  frank.  Received  aa 
invitation  from  the  Lord  Mayor  to  dine  with  Her  Ma- 
jesty's Ministers. 

"27th  July. — Hear  the  sad  news  that  Robert  is  in  the 
American  army.  .  ,  .  Went  to  Lord  Mayor  Lawrence's 
to  dinner.     .    .     ." 

With  reference  to  the  "sad  news"  of  Robert,  which 
made  his  father  very  heavy-heartea  during  the  first  part 
of  his  visit  home,  it  is  right  to  state  a  few  particulars,  as 
the  painful  subject  found  its  way  into  print,  and  was  not 
always  recorded  accurately.  Robert  had  some  promising 
qualities,  and  those  who  knew  and  understood  him  had 
good  hopes  of  his  turning  out  well.  But  he  was  extremely 
restless,  as  if,  to  use  Livingstone's  phrase,  he  had  got "  a 


358  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

deal  of  the  vagabond  nature  from  his  father  f*  and  school- 
life  was  very  irksome  to  him.  With  the  view  of  joining 
his  father,  he  was  sent  to  Natal,  but  he  found  no  opportu- 
nity of  getting  thence  to  the  Zambesi.  Leaving  Natal,  he 
found  his  way  to  America,  and  at  Boston  he  enlisted  in 
the  Federal  army.  The  service  was  as  hot  as  could  be. 
In  one  battle,  two  men  were  killed  close  to  him  by  shrap- 
nel shell,  a  rifle  bullet  passed  close  to  his  head,  and  killed 
a  man  behind  him;  other  two  were  wounded  close  by  him. 
His  letters  to  his  sister  expressed  his  regret  at  the  course 
of  his  life,  and  confessed  that  his  troubles  were  due  to  his 
disobedience.  So  far  was  he  from  desiring  to  trade  on  his 
father's  name,  that  in  enlisting  he  assumed  another,  nor 
did  any  one  in  the  army  know  whose  son  it  was  that  was 
fighting  for  the  freedom  of  the  slave.  Meeting  the  risks 
of  battle  with  dauntless  courage,  he  purposely  abstained, 
even  in  the  heat  of  a  charge,  from  destroying  life.  Not 
long  after,  Dr.  Livingstone  learned  that  in  one  of  his 
battles  he  was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner ;  then  came  a 
letter  from  a  hospital,  in  which  he  again  expressed  his 
intense  desire  to  travel.  But  his  career  had  come  to  its 
close.  He  died  in  his  nineteenth  year.  His  body  lies  in 
the  great  national  cemetery  of  Gettysburg,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  opening  which  Lincoln  uttered  one  of  those 
speeches  that  made  his  name  dear  to  Livingstone.  What- 
ever degree  of  comfort  or  hope  his  father  might  derive 
from  Robert's  last  letters,  he  felt  saddened  by  his  unsatis- 
factory career.  Writing  to  his  friend  Moore  (5th  August) 
he  says :  "  I  hope  your  eldest  son  will  do  well  in  the  dis- 
tant land  to  which  he  has  gone.  My  son  is  in  the  Federal 
army  in  America,  and  no  comfort.  The  secret  ballast  is 
Dften  applied  by  a  kind  hand  above,  when  to  outsiders  we 
appear  to  be  sailing  gloriously  with  the  wind." 

''29th  July. — Called  on  Mr.  Gladstone;  he  was  very  affable — spok» 
about  the  Mission,  and  asked  if  I  had  told  Lord  Russell  about  it.  .  .  , 
Visited  Lady  Franklin  and  Miss  Cracro^,  her  niece.    ...     Pined 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME,  359 

with  Lord  and  Lady  Palmerston,  Lady  Shaftesbury,  and  Lady  Victoria 
Ashley,  the  Portuguese  Minister,  Count  d'Azeglio  (Sardinian  Minister), 
Mr.  Calcraft — a  very  agreeable  party.  Mr.  Calcraft  and  I  walked  home 
after  retiring.  He  is  cousin  to  Colonel  Steele;  the  colonel  has  gone 
abroad  with  his  daughter,  who  is  delicate.'' 

^^  Saturday,  Z\st  July,  1864. — Came  down  by  the  morning  train  to 
Harburn,  and  met  my  old  friend  Mr.  Young,  who  took  me  to  Limefield, 
and  introduced  me  to  a  nice  family." 

Dr.  Livingstone's  relation  to  Mr.  Young's  family  was 
Very  close  and  cordial.  Hardly  one  of  the  many  notes 
and  letters  he  wrote  to  his  friend  fails  to  send  greetings  to 
"Ma- James,"  as  he  liked  to  call  Mrs.  Young,  after  the 
African  fashion.  It  is  not  only  the  playful  ease  of  his 
letters  that  shows  how  much  he  felt  at  home  with  Mr. 
Young, — the  same  thing  appears  from  the  frequency  with 
which  he  sought  his  counsel  in  matters  of  business,  and 
the  value  which  he  set  upon  it. 

*^  Sunday,  \st  August. — Went  to  the  U.P.  church,  and  heard  excellent 
sermons.     Was  colder  this  time  than  on  my  former  visit  to  Scotland. 

"  2d  ^w^M5^— Reached  Hamilton.  Mother  did  not  know  me  at  first, 
Anna  Mary,  a  nice  sprightly  child,  told  me  that  she  preferred  Garibaldi 
buttons  on  her  dress,  as  I  walked  down  to  Dr.  Loudon  to  thank  him  for 
his  kindness  to  my  mother, 

"  M  August. — Agnes,  Oswell,  and  Thomas  came.  I  did  not  recognize 
Tom,  he  has  grown  so  much.  Has  been  poorly  a  long  while ;  conges- 
tion of  the  kidney,  it  is  said.  Agnes  quite  tall,  and  Anna  Mary  a  nice 
little  girl" 

The  next  few  days  were  spent  with  his  family,  and  in 
visits  to  the  neighborhood.  He  had  a  consultation  with 
Professor  Syme  as  to  a  surgical  operation  recommended 
for  an  ailment  that  had  troubled  him  ever  since  his  first 
great  journey ;  he  was  strongly  urged  to  have  the  opera- 
tion performed,  and  probably  it  would  have  been  better  if 
he  had;  but  he  finally  declined,  partly  because  an  old 
medical  friend  was  against  it,  but  chiefly,  as  he  told  Sil 
Roderick,  because  the  matter  would  get  into  the  news- 
papers, and  he  did  not  like  the  public  to  be  speaking  of 


560  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

his  infirmities.  On  the  17th  he  went  to  Inveraray  to  visit 
the  Duke  of  Argyll.  He  was  greatly  pleased  with  his 
reception,  and  his  Journal  records  the  most  trifling  details. 
What  especially  charmed  him  was  the  considerate  fore- 
thought in  making  him  feel  at  his  ease.  "On  Monday 
morning  I  had  the  honor  of  planting  two  trees  beside  those 
planted  by  Sir  John  Lawrence  and  the  Marquis  of  Lans- 
downe,  and  by  the  Princess  of  Prussia  and  the  Crown 
Prince.  The  coach  came  at  twelve  o'clock,  and  I  finished 
the  most  delightful  visit  I  ever  made." 

Next  day  he  went  to  Oban,  and  the  day  after  by  st  »amer 
to  lona  and  Stafia,  and  thereafter  to  Aros,  in  Mull.  Next 
day  Captain  Greenhill  took  him  in  his  yacht  to  Ulva. 

"In  1848  the  kelp  and  potatoes  failed,  and  the  pro- 
prietor, a  writer  from  Stirling,  rednced  the  population 
from  six  hundred  to  one  hundred.  None  of  my  family 
remain.  The  minister,  Mr.  Fraser,  had  made  inquiries 
some  years  ago,  and  found  an  old  woman  who  remem- 
bered my  grandfather  living  at  Uamh,  or  the  Cave.  It  is  a 
sheltered  spot,  with  basaltic  rocks  jutting  out  of  the  ground 
below  the  cave;  the  walls  of  the  house  remain,  and  the 
corn  and  potato  patches  are  green,  bu*  no  one  lives 
there.     .    .    ." 

Returning  to  Oban  on  the  24th  August,  ** .  .  .  I  then 
came  to  the  Crinan  Canal,  and  at  Glasgow  evA  thereof  met 
that  famous  missionary,  Dr.  Dufi",  from  India  A  fine,  tall, 
noble-looking  man,  with  a  white  beard  and  a  Imtch  in 
.his  muscles  which  shows  that  the  Indian  climo-tij  has  done 
its  work  on  him.     .     .     .     Home  to  Hamilton." 

The  Highlanders  everywhere  claimed  him ;  "  they 
cheered  me,"  he  writes  to  Sir  Roderick,  "  as  a  man  and  a 
brother." 

The  British  Association  was  to  meet  at  Ba^  this 
autumn,  and  Livingstone  was  to  give  a  lecture  on  Africa. 
It  was  a  dreadful  thought.  "  Worked  at  my  Bath  speechc 
A  cold  shiver  comes  over  me  when  I  think  of  it.    Ugh  I' 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME,  361 

Then  he  went  with  his  daughter  Agnes  to  see  a  beautiful 
sight,  the  launching  of  a  Turkish  frigate  from  Mr.  Napier's 
yard — "  8000  tons  weight  plunged  into  the  Clyde,  and  sent 
a  wave  of  its  dirty  water  over  to  the  other  side."  The 
Turkish  Ambassador,  Musurus  Pasha,  was  one  of  the  party 
at  Shan  don,  and  he  and  Livingstone  traveled  in  the  same 
carriage.  At  one  of  the  stations  they  were  greatly  cheered 
by  the  Volunteers.  "  The  cheers  are  for  you,"  Livingstone 
said  to  the  Ambassador,  with  a  smile.  "  No,"  said  the 
Turk,  "I  am  only  what  my  master  made  me;  you  are  what 
you  made  yourself."  When  the  party  reached  the  Queen's 
Hotel,  a  working  man  rushed  across  the  road,  seized  Liv- 
ingstone's hand,  saying,  "  I  must  shake  your  hand,"  clapped 
him  on  the  back,  and  rushed  back  again.  "You'll  not 
deny  now,"  said  the  Ambassador,  "  that  that's  for  you." 

Returning  to  Hamilton,  he  notes,  on  4th  September: 
"  Church  in  the  forenoon  to  hear  a  stranger,  in  the  after- 
noon to  hear  Mr.  Buchan  give  an  excellent  sermon."  On 
6th,  6th,  7th,  he  is  at  the  speech.  On  8th  he  receives  a 
most  kind  invitation  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  of  Newstead 
Abbey,  to  make  their  house  his  home.  Mr.  Webb  was  a 
very  old  friend,  a  great  hunter,  who  had  seen  Livingstone 
at  Kolobeng,  and  formed  an  attachment  to  him  which 
continued  as  warm  as  ever  to  the  last  day  of  Livingstone's 
life.  Livingstone  and  his  daughter  Agnes  reach  Bath  on 
the  15th,  and  become  the  guests  of  Dr.  and  Miss  Watson, 
of  both  of  whom  he  writes  in  the  highest  terms. 

"  On  Sunday,  heard  a  good  sermon  from  Mr.  Fleming. 
Bishop  Colenso  called  on  me.  He  was  very  much  cheered 
by  many  people ;  it  is  evident  that  they  admire  his  pluck, 
and  consider  him  a  persecuted  man.  Went  to  the  theatre 
on  Monday,  19th,  to  deliver  my  address.  When  in  the 
green-room,  a  loud  cheering  was  made  for  Bishop  Colenso, 
and  some  hisses.  It  was  a  pity  that  he  came  to  the  British 
Association,  as  it  looks  like  taking  sides.  Sir  Charles 
Lyell  cheered  and  clapped  his  hands  in  a  most  vigorous 
81 


362  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

way.  Got  over  the  address  nicely.  People  very  kind  and 
indulgent — 2500  persons  present,  but  it  is  a  place  easily 
spoken  in." 

When  Bishop  Colenso  moved  the  vote  of  thanks  to  Dr. 
Livingstone  for  his  address,  occasion  was  taken  by  some 
narrow  and  not  very  scrupulous  journals  to  raise  a  preju- 
dice against  him.  He  was  represented  as  sharing  the 
Bishop's  theological  views.  For  this  charge  there  was  no 
foundation,  and  the  preceding  extract  from  his  Journal 
will  show  that  he  felt  the  Bishop's  presence  to  be  somewhat 
embarrassing.  Dr.  Livingstone  was  eminently  capable  of 
appreciating  Dr.  Colenso's  chivalrous  backing  of  nativ© 
races  in  Africa,  while  he  differed  toto  ccelo  from  his  theo- 
logical views.  In  an  entry  in  his  Journal  a  few  days  later 
he  refers  to  an  African  traveler  who  had  got  a  high  repu- 
tation without  deserving  it,  for  "  he  sank  to  the  low  estate 
of  the  natives,  and  rather  admired  Essays  and  Reviews^ 

The  next  passage  we  give  from  his  Journal  refers  to  the 
melancholy  end  of  another  brother-traveler,  of  whom  he 
always  spoke  with  respect: 

"  23 J  Sept. — Went  to  the  funeral  of  poor  Captain  Speke, 
who,  when  out  shooting  on  the  15th,  the  day  I  arrived  at 
Bath,  was  killed  by  the  accidental  discharge  of  his  gun.  It 
was  a  sad  shock  to  me,  for,  having  corresponded  with  him, 
I  anticipated  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him,  and  the  first 
news  Dr.  Watson  gave  me  was  that  of  his  death.  He  was 
buried  at  Dowlish,  a  village  where  his  family  have  a  vault. 
Captain  Grant,  a  fine  fellow,  put  a  wreath  or  immortelle 
upon  the  cofiin  as  it  passed  us  in  church.  It  was  composed 
of  mignonette  and  wild  violets." 

The  Bath  speech  gave  desperate  ofiense  to  the  Portu- 
guese. Livingstone  thought  it  a  good  sign,  wrote  play- 
fully to  Mr.  Webb  that  they  were  "  cussin'  and  swearin' 
dreadful,"  and  wondered  if  they  would  keep  their  senses 
when  the  book  came  out.  In  a  postscript  to  the  preface 
to  The  Zambesi  and  its  Tributaries,  he  says,  "  Senhor  Laxjerda 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME.  363 

has  endeavored  to  extinguish  the  facts  adduced  hv  me 
at  Bath  by  a  series  of  papers  in  the  Portuguese  official 
journal ;  and  their  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  has  since 
devoted  some  of  the  funds  of  his  Government  to  the  trans- 
lation and  circulation  of  Senhor  Lacerda's  articles  in  the 
form  of  an  English  tract."  He  replies  to  the  allegations 
of  the  pamphlet  on  the  main  points.  But  he  was  too 
magnanimous  to  make  allusion  to  the  shameless  inde- 
cency of  the  personal  charges  against  himself.  "  It  is 
manifest,"  said  Lacerda,  "  without  the  least  reason  to 
doubt,  that  Dr.  Livingstone,  under  the  pretext  of  propa- 
gating the  Word  of  God  (this  being  the  least  in  which  he 
employed  himself)  and  the  advancement  of  geographical 
and  natural  science,  made  all  his  steps  and  exertions  sub- 
servient to  the  idea  of  .  .  .  eventually  causing  the  loss 
to  Portugal  of  the  advantages  of  the  rich  commerce  of  the 
interior,  and  in  the  end,  when  a  favorable  occasion  arose 
that  of  the  very  territory  itself."  Lacerda  then  quoted 
the  bitter  letter  of  Mr.  Rowley  in  illustration  of  Living- 
stone's plans  and  methods,  and  urged  remonstrance  as  a 
duty  of  the  Portuguese  Government.  "Nor,"  he  con- 
tinued, "  ought  the  Government  of  Portugal  to  stop  here. 
It  ought,  as  we  have  said,  to  go  further;  because  from 
what  his  countrymen  say  of  Livingstone — and  to  which 
he  only  answers  by  a  mere  vain  negation, — from  what 
he  unhesitatingly  declares  of  himself  and  his  intentions, 
and  from  what  must  be  known  to  the  Government  by 
private  information  from  their  delegates,  it  is  obvious  that 
such  men  as  Livingstone  may  become  extremely  prejudi- 
cial to  the  interests  of  Portugal,  especially  when  resident 
in  a  public  capacity  in  our  African  possessions,  if  not 
efficiently  watched,  if  their  audacious  and  mischievous 
actions  are  not  restrained.  If  steps  are  not  taken  in  a 
proper  and  eflPective  manner,  so  that  they  may  be  per- 
mitted only  to  do  good^,  if  indeed  good  can  come  from 
such,"  etc. 


364  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

"26<A  Sept. — Agnes  and  I  go  to-daj  to  Newstead  Abbey,  Ifoltfl. 
Beach  it  about  9  p.m.,  and  find  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  all  I  anticipated 
and  more.  A  splendid  old  mansion  with  a  wonderful  number  of 
curiosities  in  it,  and  magnificent  scenery  around.  It  was  the  residence 
of  Lord  Byron,  and  his  furniture  is  kept"  [in  his  private  rooms]  "just 
as  he  left  it.  His  character  does  not  shine.  It  appears  to  have  been 
horrid.  ,  .  ,  He  made  a  drinking  cup  of  a  monk's  skull  found  under 
the  high  altar,  with  profane  verses  on  the  silver  setting,  and  kept  hia 
wine  in  the  stone  coflSn.  These  Mrs.  Webb  buried,  and  all  the  bones 
she  could  find  that  had  been  desecrated  by  the  poet." 

In  a  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  he  speaks  of  the  poet 
as  one  of  those  who,  like  many  others — some  of  them 
travelers  who  abused  missionaries, — considered  it  a  fine 
thing  to  be  thought  awfully  bad  fellows. 

"27th. — Went  through  the  whole  house  with  our  kind  hosts,  and 
saw  all  the  wonders,  which  would  require  many  days  properly  to 
examine.     .     ,     , 

"2d  October. — Took  Communion  in  the  chapel  of  the  Abbey.  God 
grant  me  to  be  and  always  to  act  as  a  true  Christian. 

"Sd. — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  kindness  itself  personified.  A  blessing  be 
on  them  and  their  children  from  the  Almighty  1" 

When  first  invited  to  reside  at  Newstead  Abbey,  Dr. 
Livingstone  declined,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  to  be 
busy  writing  a  book,  and  that  he  wished  to  have  some  of 
his  children  with  him,  and  in  the  case  of  Agnes,  to  let 
her  have  music  lessons.  His  kind  friends,  however,  were 
resolved  that  these  reasons  should  not  stand  in  the  way, 
and  arrangements  were  made  by  them  accordingly.  Dr. 
Livingstone  continued  to  be  their  guest  for  eight  months, 
and  received  from  them  all  manner  of  assistance.  Some- 
times Mr.  and  Mrs.  "Webb,  Mrs.  Goodlake  (Mrs.  Webb's 
mother),  and  his  daughter  Agnes  would  all  be  busy  copy- 
ing his  journals.  The  "  Livingstone  room,"  as  it  is  called, 
in  the  Sussex  tower,  is  likely  to  be  associated  with  his 
name  while  the  building  lasts.  It  was  his  habit  to  rise 
early  and  work  at  his  book,  to  return  to  his  task  after 
breakfast  and  continue  till  luncheon,  and  in  the  afternoon 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME,  365 

have  a  long  walk  with  Mr.  Webb.  It  is  only  when  the 
book  is  approaching  its  close  that  we  find  him  working 
"till  two  in  the  morning."  One  of  his  chief  recreations 
was  in  the  field  of  natural  history,  watching  experiments 
with  the  spawning  of  trout.  He  endeared  himself  to  all, 
high  and  low;  was  a  special  favorite  with  the  children, 
and  did  not  lose  opportunities  to  commend,  in  the  way  he 
thought  best,  those  high  views  of  life  and  duty  which  had 
been  so  signally  exemplified  in  his  own  career.  The 
playfulness  of  his  nature  found  full  and  constant  scope  at 
Newstead ;  he  regained  an  almost  boyish  flow  of  animal 
spirits,  reveled  in  fun  and  frolic  in  his  short  notes  to 
friends  like  Mr.  Young,  or  Mr.  Webb  when  he  happened 
to  be  absent ;  wrote  in  the  style  of  Mr.  Punch,  and  called 
his  opponents  by  ludicrous  names;  yet  never  forgot  the 
stern  duty  that  loomed  before  him,  or  allowed  the  enjoy- 
ment and  abandon  of  the  moment  to  divert  him  from  the 
death-struggle  on  behalf  of  Africa  in  which  he  had  yet 
to  engage. 

The  book  was  at  first  to  be  a  little  one, — a'  blast  of  the 
trumpet  against  the  monstrous  slave-trade  of  the  Portu- 
guese ;  but  it  swelled  to  a  goodly  octavo,  and  embraced 
the  history  of  the  Zambesi  Expedition.  Charles  Living- 
stone had  written  a  full  diary,  and  in  order  that  his  name 
might  be  on  the  title-page,  and  he  might  have  the  profits 
of  the  American  edition,  his  journal  was  made  use  of  in 
the  writing  of  the  book;  but  the  arrangement  was  awk- 
ward ;  sometimes  Livingstone  forgot  the  understanding  of 
joint-authorship,  and  he  found  that  he  could  more  easily 
have  written  the  whole  from  the  foundation.  At  first  it 
was  designed  that  the  book  should  appear  early  in  the 
summer  of  1865,  but  when  the  printing  was  finished  the 
map  was  not  ready ;  and  the  publication  had  to  be  delayed 
till  the  usual  season  in  autumn. 

The  entries  in  his  Journal  are  brief,  and  of  little  general 
interest  during  the  time  the  book  was  getting  ready.    Most 


366  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

of  them  have  reference  to  the  affairs  of  other  people.  As 
he  finds  that  Dr.  Kirk  is  unable  to  undertake  a  work  on 
the  botany  and  natural  history  of  the  Expedition,  unless 
he  should  hold  some  permanent  situation,  he  exerts  him- 
self to  procure  a  Government  appointment  for  him,  recom- 
mending him  strongly  to  Sir  R.  Murchison  and  others, 
and  is  particularly  gratified  by  a  reply  to  his  application 
from  the  Earl  of  Dalhousie,  who  wrote  that  he  regarded 
his  request  as  a  command.  He  is  pleased  to  learn  that, 
through  the  kind  efforts  of  Sir  Roderick,  his  brother 
Charles  has  been  appointed  Consul  at  Fernando  Po.  He 
sees  the  American  Minister,  who  promises  to  do  all  he  can 
for  Robert,  but  almost  immediately  after,  the  report  comes 
that  poor  Robert  has  died  in  a  hospital  in  Salisbury,  North 
Carolina.  He  delivers  a  lecture  at  the  Mechanics'  Insti- 
tute at  Mansfield,  but  the  ver^'-  idea  of  a  speech  always 
makes  him  ill,  and  in  this  case  it  brings  on  an  attack  of 
haemorrhoids,  with  which  he  had  not  been  troubled  for 
long.  He  goes  to  London  to  a  meeting  of  the  Geographi- 
cal Society,  and  hears  a  paper  of  Burton's — a  gentleman 
from  whose  geographical  views  he  dissents,  as  he  does 
from  his  views  on  subjects  more  important.  In  regard  to 
his  book  he  says  very  little ;  foul*  days,  he  tells  us,  were 
spent  in  writing  the  description  of  the  Victoria  Falls ;  and 
on  the  15th  April,  1865,  he  summons  his  daughter  Agnes 
to  take  his  pen  and  write  finis  at  the  end  of  his  manu- 
script. On  leaving  Nev/stead  on  the  25th,  he  writes, 
"Parted  with  our  good  friends  the  Webbs.  And  may 
God  Almighty  bless  and  reward  them  and  their  family !" 

Some  time  before  this,  a  proposal  was  made  to  him  by 
Sir  Roderick  Murchison  which  in  the  end  gave  a  new 
direction  to  the  remaining  part  of  his  life.  It  was  brought 
before  him  in  the  following  letter : 

''Jan.  5,  1865. 
"  My  dear  Livingstone  : — As  to  your  future,  I  am  anxious  to  know 
what  your  own  wish  is  as  respects  a  renewal  of  African  exploration. 


SECOND  VISIT  HOMK  807 

** Quite  irrespective  of  miasionaries  or  political  affairs,  there  is  ti 
this  moment  a  question  of  intense  geographical  interest  to  be  settled^ 
namely,  the  watershed,  or  watersheds,  of  South  Africa. 

**  Now,  if  you  would  really  like  to  be  the  person  to  finish  oflf  your 
remarkable  career  by  completing  such  a  survey,  unshackled  by  other 
avocations  than  those  of  the  geographical  explorer,  I  should  be  de- 
lighted to  consult  my  friends  of  the  Society,  and  take  the  best  steps  to 
promote  such  an  enterprise. 

"For  example,  you  might  take  your  little  steamer  to  the  Rovuma, 
and,  getting  up  by  water  as  far  as  possible  in  the  rainy  season,  then 
try  to  reach  the  south  end  of  the  Tanganyika.  Thither  you  might 
transport  a  light  boat,  or  build  one  there,  and  so  get  to  the  end  of  that 
sheet  of  water. 

*'  Various  questions  might  be  decided  by  the  way,  and  if  you  could 
get  to  the  west,  and  come  out  on  that  coast,  or  should  be  able  to  reach 
the  White  Nile  (1),  you  would  bring  back  an  unrivaled  reputation,  and 
would  have  settled  all  the  great  disputes  now  pending. 

"  If  you  do  not  like  to  undertake  the  purely  geographical  work,  I  am 
of  opinion  that  no  one,  after  yourself,  is  so  fitted  to  carry  it  out  as  Dr. 
Kirk.  I  know  that  he  thinks  of  settling  down  now  at  home.  But  if 
he  CQuld  delay  this  home-settlement  for  a  couple  of  years,  he  would 
not  only  make  a  large  sum  of  money  by  his  book  of  travels,  but  would 
have  a  renown  that  would  give  him  an  excellent  introduction  as  a 
medical  man. 

"I  have  heard  you  so  often  talk  of  the  enjoyment  you  feel  when  in 
Africa,  that  I  cannot  believe  you  now  think  of  anchoring  for  the  rest 
of  your  life  on  the  mud  and  sand-banks  of  England. 

"Let  me  know  your  mind  on  the  subject.  When  is  the  book  to 
appear?     Kind  love  to  your  daughter. — ^Yours  sincerely, 

"  Rod'^^  I.  MURCHISON." 

Livingstone  begins  his  answer  by  assuring  Sir  Roderick 
that  he  never  contemplated  settling  down  quietly  in  Eng- 
land ;  it  would  be  time  enough  for  that  when  he  was  in 
his  dotage.  "  I  should  like  the  exploration  you  propose 
very  much,  and  had  already  made  up  my  mind  to  go  up 
the  Eovuma,  pass  by  the  head  of  Lake  Nyassa,  and  away 
west  or  northwest  as  might  be  found  practicable."  He 
would  have  been  at  this  ere  now,  but  his  book  chained 
him,  and  he  feared  that  he  could  not  take  back  the  "  Lady 
Nyassa"  to  Africa,  with  the  monsoon  against  him,  so  that 
he  must  get  a  boat  to  explore  the  Rovuma. 


868  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

**What  my  inclination  leads  me  to  prefer  is  to  have  intercourse  with 
the  people,  and  do  what  I  can  by  talking,  to  enlighten  them  on  the 
slave-trade,  and  give  them  some  idea  of  our  religion.  It  may  not  be 
much  that  I  can  do,  but  I  feel  when  doing  that  I  am  not  living  in  vain. 
You  remember  that  when,  to  prevent  our  coming  to  a  standstill,  I  had 
to  turn  skipper  myself,  the  task  was  endurable  only  because  I  was 
determined  that  no  fellow  should  prove  himself  indispensable  to  our 
further  progress.  To  be  debarred  from  spending  most  of  my  time  in 
traveling,  in  exploration,  and  continual  intercourse  with  the  natives,  I 
always  felt  to  be  a  severe  privation,  and  if  I  can  get  a  few  hearty  native 
companions,  I  shall  enjoy  myself,  and  feel  that  I  am  doing  my  duty. 
As  soon  as  my  book  is  out,  I  shall  start." 

In  Livingstone's  Journal,  Tth  January,  1865,  we  find 
this  entry:  "Answered  Sir  Eoderick  about  going  out. 
Said  I  could  only  feel  in  the  way  of  duty  by  working  as 
a  missionary."  The  answer  is  very  noteworthy  in  the 
view  of  what  has  so  often  been  said  against  Livingstone — 
that  he  dropped  the  missionary  to  become  an  explorer. 
To  understand  the  precise  bearing  of  the  proposal,  and  of 
Livingstone's  reply,  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  Sir  Roder- 
ick had  a  conviction,  which  he  never  concealed,  that  the 
missionary  enterprise  encumbered  and  impeded  the  geo- 
graphical. He  had  a  special  objection  to  an  Episcopal 
mission,  holding  that  the  planting  of  a  Bishop  and  staff 
on  territory  dominated  by  the  Portuguese  was  an  addi- 
tional irritant,  rousing  ecclesiastical  jealousy,  and  bringing 
it  to  the  aid  of  commercial  and  political  apprehensions  as 
to  the  tendency  of  the  English  enterprise.  Neither  mis- 
sion nor  colony  could  succeed  in  the  present  state  of  the 
country ;  they  could  only  be  a  trouble  to  the  geographical 
explorer.  On  this  point  Livingstone  held  his  own  views. 
He  could  only  feel  in  the  line  of  duty  as  a  missionary. 
"Whatever  he  might  or  might  not  be  able  to  do  in  that 
capacity,  he  would  never  abandon  it,  and,  in  particular, 
he  would  never  come  under  an  obligation  to  the  Geo- 
graphical Society  that  he  would  serve  them  "  unshackled 
by  other  avocations  than  those  of  the  geographical  esr 
plorer." 


SECOND  VISIT  HOMK  36« 

A  letter  to  Mr.  James  Young  throws  light  on  the  feel- 
ings with  which  he  regarded  Sir  Roderick's  proposal : 

"  20jfA  January^  1865. — I  am  not  sure  but  I  told  you  already  that  Sir 
Roderick  and  I  have  been  writing  about  going  out,  and  my  fears  thai 
I  must  sell  *  Lady  Nyassa,'  because  the  monsoon  will  be  blowing  frona 
Africa  to  India  before  I  get  out,  and  it  won't  do  for  me  to  keep  her  idle. 
I  must  go  down  to  the  Seychelles  Islands  (tak'  yer  speks  and  keek  at 
the  map  or  gougrafy),  then  run  my  chance  to  get  over  by  a  dhow  or 
man-of-war  to  the  Eovuma,  going  up  that  river  in  a  boat,  till  we  get  to 
the  cataracts,  and  then  tramp.  I  must  take  Belochees  from  India,  and 
may  go  down  the  lake  to  get  Makololo,  if  the  Indians  don't  answer. 
I  would  not  consent  to  go  simply  as  a  geographer,  but  as  a  missionary, 
and  do  geography  by  the  way,  because  1  feel  I  am  in  the  way  of  duty 
when  trying  either  to  enlighten  these  poor  people,  or  open  their  land  to 
lawful  commerce." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Mr.  Hayward,  Q.C.,  while  on  a 
nsit  to  Newstead,  brought  an  informal  message  from  Lord 
Palmerston,  who  wished  to  know  what  he  could  do  for 
Livingstone.  Had  Livingstone  been  a  vain  man,  wishing 
a  handle  to  his  name,  or  had  he  even  been  bent  on  getting 
what  would  be  reasonable  in  the  way  of  salary  for  himself, 
or  of  allowance  for  his  children,  now  was  his  chance  of 
accomplishing  his  object.  But  so  single-hearted  was  he 
in  his  philanthropy  that  such  thoughts  did  not  so  much 
as  enter  his  mind;  there  was  one  thing,  and  one  only, 
which  he  wished  Lord  Palmerston  to  secure — ^free  access 
to  the  highlands,  by  the  Zambesi  and  Shire,  to  be  made 
good  by  a  treaty  with  Portugal.  It  is  satisfactory  to  record 
that  the  Foreign  Office  has  at  last  made  arrangements  to 
this  effect. 

While  the  proposal  on  the  part  of  the  President  of  the 
Geographical  Society  was  undergoing  consideration,  cer- 
tain overtures  were  made  to  Dr.  Livingstone  by  the 
Foreign  Office.  On  the  11th  of  March  he  called  at  the 
office,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Layard,  who  propounded  a 
scheme  that  he  should  have  a  commission  giving  him 
authority  over  the  chiefs,  from  the  Portuguese  boundary 


370  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

to  Abyssinia  and  Egypt;  the  office  to  carry  no  salary. 
When  a  formal  proposal  to  this  effect  was  submitted  to 
him,  with  the  additional  proviso  that  he  was  to  be  entitled 
to  no  pension,  he  could  not  conceal  his  irritation.  For 
himself  he  was  just  as  willing  as  ever  to  work  as  before, 
without  hope  of  earthly  recompense,  and  to  depend  on 
the  petition,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread ;"  but  he 
thought  it  ungenerous  to  take  advantage  of  his  well- 
known  interest  in  Africa  to  deprive  him  of  the  honora- 
rium which  the  most  insignificant  servant  of  Her  Majesty 
enjoyed.  He  did  not  like  to  be  treated  like  a  charwoman. 
As  for  the  pension,  he  had  never  asked  it,  and  counted  it 
offensive  to  be  treated  as  if  he  had  shown  a  greed  which 
required  to  be  repressed.  It  came  out,  subsequently,  that 
the  letter  had  been  written  by  an  underling,  but  when 
Earl  Russell  was  appealed  to,  he  would  only  promise  a 
salary  when  Dr.  Livingstone  should  have  settled  some- 
where! The  whole  transaction  had  a  very  ungracious 
aspect. 

Before  publishing  his  book.  Dr.  Livingstone  had  asked 
Sir  Roderick  Murchison's  advice  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
speaking  his  mind  on  two  somewhat  delicate  points.  In 
reply,  Sir  Roderick  wrote :  "  If  you  think  you  have  been 
too  hard  as  to  the  Bishop  or  the  Portuguese,  you  can 
modify  the  phrases.  But  I  think  that  the  truth  ought  to 
be  known,  if  only  in  vindication  of  your  own  conduct,  and 
to  account  for  the  little  success  attending  your  last  mission." 

We  continue  our  extracts  from  his  Journal : 

"26i!A  April,  1865. — In  London.  Horrified  by  news  of  President 
Lincoln's  assassination,  and  the  attempt  to  murder  Seward." 

"  2^th  April. — Went  down  to  Crystal  Palace,  with  Agnes,  to  a  Satur- 
day Concert.  The  music  very  fine.  Met  Waller,  and  lost  a  train. 
Came  up  in  hot  haste  to  the  dinner  of  the  Royal  Academy.  .  .  , 
Sir  Charles  Eastlake,  President;  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York 
on  each  side  of  the  chair;  all  the  Ministers  present,  except  Lord  Pal- 
merston,  who  is  ill  of  gout  in  the  hand.  Lord  Russell,  Lord  Granville, 
and  Duke  of  Somerset  eat  on  other  side  of  table  from  Sir  Henry  Hoi- 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME.  371 

land,  Sir  Eodericli,  and  myself.  Lord  Clarendon  was  close  enough  to 
lean  back  and  clap  me  on  the  shoulder,  and  ask  me  when  I  was  going 
out.  Duke  of  Argyll,  Bishops  of  Oxford  and  London,  were  within 
earshot;  Sir  J.  Romilly,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  was  directly  in  front, 
on  the  other  side  of  our  table.  He  said  that  he  watched  all  my  move- 
ments with  great  interest.  .  .  .  Lord  Derby  made  a  good  speech. 
The  speeches  were  much  above  the  average.  I  was  not  told  that  I  was 
expected  to  speak  till  I  got  in,  and  this  prevented  my  eating.  When 
Lord  John  Manners  complimented  me  after  my  speech,  I  mentioned 
the  effect  the  anticipation  had  on  me.  To  comfort  me  he  said  that  the 
late  Sir  Robert  Peel  never  enjoyed  a  dinner  in  these  circumstances,  but 
sat  crumbling  up  his  bread  till  it  became  quite  a  heap  on  the  table. 
•    .     .     My  speech  was  not  reported." 

*^2d  May. — Met  Mr.  El  win,  formerly  editor  of  the  (Quarterly.  He 
said  that  Forster,  one  of  our  first-class  writers,  had  told  him  that  the 
most  characteristic  speech  was  not  reported,  and  mentioned  the  heads 
— as,  the  slave-trade  being  of  the  same  nature  as  thuggee,  garrotting  j 
the  tribute  I  paid  to  our  statesmen  ;  and  the  way  that  Africans  have 
been  drawn,  pointing  to  a  picture  of  a  woman  spinning.  This  non- 
reporting  was  much  commented  on,  which  might,  if  I  needed  it,  prove 
a  solace  to  my  wounded  vanity.  But  I  did  not  feel  offended.  Every- 
thing good  for  me  will  be  given,  and  I  take  all  as  a  little  child  from  its 
father. 

"  Heard  a  capital  sermon  from  Dr.  Hamilton  [Regent  Square  Church], 
on  President  Lincoln's  assassination.  '  It  is  impossible  but  that  offenses 
will  come,'  etc.  He  read  part  of  the  President's  address  at  second  inau- 
guration. In  the  light  of  subsequent  events  it  is  grand.  If  every  drop 
of  blood  shed  by  the  lash  must  be  atoned  for  by  an  equal  number  of 
white  men's  vital  fluid, — righteous,  0  Lord,  are  Thy  judgments  I  The 
assassination  has  awakened  universal  sympathy  and  indignation,  and 
will  lead  to  more  cordiality  between  the  countries.  The  Queen  has 
written  an  autograph  letter  to  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  Lords  and  Commons 
have  presented  addresses  to  Her  Majesty,  praying  her  to  convey  their 
sentiments  of  horror  at  the  fearful  crime." 

'^  \^ih  Mayj  1865. — Was  examined  by  the  Committee  [of  the  House 
of  Commons]  on  the  West  Coast ;  was  rather  nervous  and  confused, 
but  let  them  know  pretty  plainly  that  I  did  not  agree  with  the  asper- 
sions cast  on  missions. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Webb,  lie  writes  a  propos  of  this 
examination : 

"  The  monstrous  mistake  of  the  Burton  school  is  this  :  they  ignore 
the  point-blank  fact  that  the  men  that  do  the  most  for  the  mean  whites 


372  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

are  the  same  that  do  the  most  for  the  mean  blacks,  and  you  never 
hear  one  mother's  son  of  them  say,  You  do  wrong  to  give  to  the  whites. 
I  told  the  Committee  I  had  heard  people  say  that  Christianity  made 
the  blacks  worse,  but  did  not  agree  with  them.  I  might  have  said  it 
was  '  rot,'  and  truly.  I  can  stand  a  good  deal  of  bosh,  but  to  tell  me 
that  Christianity  makes  people  worse — ugh!  Tell  that  to  the  young 
trouts.  You  know  on  what  side  I  am,  and  I  shall  stand  to  my  side,  Old 
Pam  fashion,  through  thick  and  thin.  I  don't  agree  with  all  my  side 
Bay  and  do.  I  won't  justify  many  things,  but  for  the  great  cause  of 
human  progress  I  am  heart  and  soul,  and  so  are  you." 

Dr.  Livingstone  was  asked  at  this  time  to  attend  a 
public  meeting  on  behalf  of  American  freedom.  It  was 
not  in  his  power  to  go,  but,  in  apologizing,  he  was  at  pains 
to  express  his  opinion  on  the  capacity  of  the  negro,  in 
connection  with  what  was  going  on  in  the  United  States : 

"  Our  kinsmen  across  the  Atlantic  deserve  our  warmest  sympathy. 
They  have  passed,  and  are  passing,  through  trials,  and  are  encom- 
passed with  difficulties  which  completely  dwarf  those  of  our  Irish 
famine,  and  not  the  least  of  them  is  the  question,  what  to  do  with  those 
freedmen  for  whose  existence  as  slaves  in  America  our  own  forefathers 
have  so  much  to  answer.  The  introduction  of  a  degraded  race  from  a 
barbarous  country  was  a  gigantic  evil,  and  if  the  race  cannot  be  ele- 
vated, an  evil  beyond  remedy.  Millions  can  neither  be  amalgamated 
nor  transported,  and  the  presence  of  degradation  is  a  contagion  which 
propagates  itself  among  the  more  civilized.  But  I  have  no  fears  as  to 
the  mental  and  moral  capacity  of  the  Africans  for  civilization  and 
upward  progress.  We  who  suppose  ourselves  to  have  vaulted  at  one 
.*>ound  to  the  extreme  of  civilization,  and  smack  our  lips  so  loudly  over 
Our  high  elevation,  may  find  it  difficult  to  realize  the  debasement  to 
Ir/hich  slavery  has  sunk  those  men,  or  to  appreciate  what,  in  the  disci- 
i:Hne  of  the  sad  school  of  bondage,  is  in  a  state  of  freedom  real  and 
^Dstantial  progress.  But  I,  who  have  been  intimate  with  Africans 
\Viio  have  never  been  defiled  by  the  slave-trade,  believe  them  to  be 
capable  of  holding  an  honorable  rank  in  the  family  of  man." 

Wherever  slavery  prevailed,  or  the  effects  of  slavery 
were  found,  Dr.  Livingstone's  testimony  against  it  was 
clear  and  emphatic.  Neither  personal  friendship  nor  any 
other  consideration  under  the  sun  could  repress  it.  When 
his  friends  Sir  Roderick  and  Mr.  Webb  afterward  expressed 


i 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME.  373 

the^  sympathy  with  Governor  Eyre,  of  Jamaica,  he  did 
not  scruple  to  tell  them  how  different  an  estimate  he  had 
formed  of  the  Governor's  conduct. 

We  continue  our  extracts  from  his  Journal  and  letters  i 

"24^A  May. — Came  down  to  Scotland  by  last  night's  train;  found 
mother  very  poorly ;  and,  being  now  eighty-two,  I  fear  she  may  not 
have  long  to  live  among  us." 

27^A  May  (to  Mr.  Webb). — "  I  have  been  reading  Tom  Brown's  School 
Days — a  capital  book.  Dr.  Arnold  was  a  man  worth  his  weight  in 
something  better  than  gold.  You  know  Oswell"  [his  early  friend] 
"  was  one  of  his  Eugby  boys.  One  could  see  his  training  in  always 
doing  what  was  brave  and  true  and  right." 

"  2d  June. — Tom  better,  but  kept  back  in  his  education  by  his  com- 
plaint. Oswell  getting  on  well  at  school  at  Hamilton.  Anna  Mary 
well.  Mother  gradually  becoming  weaker.  Eobert  we  shall  never 
hear  of  again  in  this  world,  I  fear ;  but  the  Lord  is  merciful  and  just 
fjad  right  in  all  his  ways.  He  would  hear  the  cry  for  mercy  in  the 
hospital  at  Salisbury.  I  have  lost  my  part  in  that  gigantic  struggle 
which  the  Highest  guided  to  a  consummation  never  contemplated  by 
the  Southerners  when  they  began ;  and  many  others  have  borne  more 
numerous  losses." 

"  bth  June. — Went  about  a  tombstone  to  my  dear  Mary.  Got  a  good 
one  of  cast-iron  to  be  sent  out  to  the  Gape. 

"  Mother  very  low.  .  .  .  Has  been  a  good  affectionate  mother  to 
us  all.  The  Lord  be  with  her.  ,  ,  .  Whatever  is  good  for  me  and 
mine  the  Lord  will  give. 

"  To-morrow,  Communion  in  kirk.  The  Lord  strip  off  all  imperfec- 
tions, wash  away  all  guilt,  breathe  love  and  goodness  through  all  my 
nature,  and  make  his  image  shine  out  from  my  soul. 

"Mother  continued  very  low,  and  her  mind  ran  on  poor  Eobert. 
Thought  I  was  his  brother,  and  asked  me  frequently,  *  Where  is  your 
brother?  where  is  that  puir  laddie?'  .  .  .  Sisters  most  attentive. 
»  .  .  Contrary  to  expectation  she  revived,  and  I  went  to  Oxford. 
The  Vice-Chancellor  offered  me  the  theatre  to  lecture  in,  but  I  expected 
a  telegram  if  any  change  took  place  on  mother.  Gave  an  address  to  a 
number  of  friends  in  Br.  Daubeny's  chemical  class-room." 

^^Monday,  19<A  June. — ^A  telegram  came,  saying  that  mother  had 
died  the  day  before.  I  started  at  once  for  Scotland.  No  change  was 
observed  till  within  an  hour  and  a  half  of  her  departure.  .  .  , 
Seeing  the  end  was  near,  sister  Agnes  said,  'The  Saviour  has  come  for 
you,  mother.  You  can  "lippen"  yourself  to  him?'  She  replied,  'Oh 
yes.'  Little  Anna  Mary  was  held  up  to  her.  She  gave  her  the  last 
82 


374  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

look,  and  said  *  Bonnie  wee  lassie,'  gave  a  few  long  inspirations,  and 
all  was  still,  with  a  look  of  reverence  on  her  countenance.  She  had 
wished  William  Logan,  a  good  Christian  man,  to  lay  her  head  in  the 
grave,  if  I  were  not  there.  When  going  away  in  1858,  she  said  to  me 
that  she  would  have  liked  one  of  her  laddies  to  lay  her  head  in  the 
grave.  It  so  happened  that  I  was  there  to  pay  the  last  tribute  to  a 
dear  good  mother." 

The  last  thing  we  find  him  doing  in  Scotland  is  attend- 
ing the  exarain-ation  of  Oswell's  school,  with  Anna  Mary, 
and  seeing  him  receive  prizes.  Dr.  Loudon,  of  Hamilton, 
the  medical  attendant  and  much-valued  friend  of  the 
Livingstones,  furnishes  us  with  a  reminiscence  of  this 
occasion.  He  had  great  difficulty  in  persuading  Living- 
stone to  go.  The  awful  bugbear  was  that  he  would  be 
asked  to  make  a  speech.  Being  assured  that  it  would  be 
thought  strange  if,  in  a  gathering  of  the  children's  parents, 
he  were  absent,  he  agreed  to  go.  And  of  course  he  had  to 
speak.  What  he  said  was  pointed  and  practical,  and  in 
winding  up,  he  said  he  had  just  two  things  to  say  to  them-| 
"  Fear  God,  and  work  hard."  These  appear  to  have  been 
Livingstone's  last  public  words  in  his  native  Scotland. 

His  Journal  is  continued  in  London : 

"  ^th  August. — Went  to  Zoological  Gardens  with  Mr.  Webb  and  Dr. 
Kirk ;  then  to  lunch  with  Miss  Coutts"  [Baroness  Burdett  Coutts]. 
"Queen  Emma  of  Honolulu  is  to  be  there.  It  is  not  fair  for  High 
Church  people  to  ignore  the  labors  of  the  Americans,  for  [the  present 
state  of  Christianity]  is  the  fruit  of  their  labors,  and  not  of  the  present 
Bishop.  Dined  at  Lady  Franklin's  with  Queen  Emma ;  a  nice,  sensible 
person  the  Queen  seems  to  be. 

"  ^th  August. — Parted  with  my  friends  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  at  King'» 
Cross  station  to-day.  He  gracefully  said  that  he  wished  I  had  been 
coming  rather  than  going  away,  and  she  shook  me  very  cordially  with 
both  hands,  and  said,  'You  will  come  back  again  to  us,  won't  you?* 
and  shed  a  womanly  tear.  The  good  Lord  bless  and  save  them  both, 
and  have  mercy  on  their  whole  household !" 

"  Wih  August. — Went  down  to  say  good-bye  to  the  Duchess- Dowager 
ot  Sutherland,  at  Maidenhead.  Garibaldi's  rooms  are  shown  :  a  good 
man  he  was,  but  followed  by  a  crowd  of  harpies  who  tried  to  use  him 
for  their  own  purposes.  .  .  .  He  was  so  utterly  worn  out  by  shaking 
^»ar>d8,  that  a  detective  policeman  who  was  with  him  in  the  jarriage, 


SECOND  VISIT  HOME.  376 

*'Took  leave  at  Foreign  Office.  Mr.  Layard  very  kind  in  his  expres- 
sions at  parting,  and  so  was  Mr.  Wylde. 

"  \2th  August. — Went  down  to  Wimbledon  to  dine  with  Mr.  Murray, 
and  take  leave.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Oswell  came  up  to  say  farewell.  He 
offers  to  go  over  to  Paris  at  any  time  to  bring  Agnes"  [who  was  going 
to  school  there]  "  home,  or  do  anything  that  a  father  would.  ["  I  love 
him,"  Livingstone  writes  to  Mr.  Webb,  "  with  true  affection,  and  I 
believe  he  does  the  same  to  me  ;  and  yet  we  never  show  it."] 

"  We  have  been  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton  for  some  time — good, 
gracious  people.  The  Lord  bless  them  and  their  household  I  Dr.  Kirk 
and  Mr.  Waller  go  down  to  Folkestone  to-morrow,  and  take  leave  of  us 
there.  This  is  very  kind.  The  Lord  puts  it  into  their  hearts  to  show 
kindness,  and  blessed  be  his  name." 

Dr.  Livingstone's  last  weeks  in  England  were  passed 
under  the  roof  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Hamilton,  author  of 
Life  in  Earnest,  and  could  hardly  have  been  passed  in  a 
more  congenial  home.  Natives  of  the  same  part  of  Scot- 
land, nearly  of  an  age,  and  resembling  each  other  much 
in  taste  and  character,  the  two  men  drew  greatly  to  each 
other.  The  same  Puritan  faith  lay  at  the  basis  of  their 
religious  character,  with  all  its  stability  and  firmness.  But 
above  all,  they  had  put  on  charity,  which  is  the  bond  of 
perfectness.  In  Natural  History,  too,  they  had  an  equal 
enthusiasm.  In  Dr.  Hamilton,  Livingstone  found  what 
he  missed  in  many  orthodox  men.  On  the  evening  of  his 
last  Sunday,  he  was  prevailed  on  to  give  an  address  in 
Dr.  Hamilton's  church,  after  having  in  the  morning 
received  the  Communion  with  the  congregation.  In  his 
address  he  vindicated  his  character  as  a  missionary,  and 
declared  that  it  was  as  much  as  ever  his  great  object 
to  proclaim  the  love  of  Christ,  which  they  had  been  com- 
memorating that  day.  His  prayers  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion ;  they  were  like  the  communings  of  a  child  with  his 
father.  At  the  railway  station,  the  last  Scotch  hands 
grasped  by  him  were  those  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton. 
The  news  of  Dr.  Hamilton's  death  was  received  by  Liv- 
ingstone a  few  years  after,  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  with  no 
small  emotion.    Their  next  meeting  was  in  the  better  land. 


S76  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTEH  XVIII. 

FROM  ENGLAND  TO  BOMBAY  AND  ZANZIBAR. 
A.D.  1865-1866. 

Object  of  new  journey — Double  scheme — He  goes  to  Paris  with  Agnes—- 
Baron  Hausmann — Anecdote  at  Marseilles — He  reaches  Bombay — Letter  to 
Agnes — Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Livingstone  at  Bombay  by  Rev.  D.  C.  Boyd — 
by  Alex.  Brown,  Esq. — Livingstone's  dress — He  visits  the  caves  of  Kenhari 
—Rumors  of  murder  of  Baron  van  der  Decken — He  delivers  a  lecture  at 
Bombay — Great  success — He  sells  the  "  Lady  Nyassa" — Letter  to  Mr.  Young 
—Letter  to  Anna  Mary — Hears  that  Dr.  Kirk  has  got  an  appointment— Sets 
out  for  Zanzibar  in  "  Thule" — Letter  to  Mr.  Young — His  experience  at  sea 
—Letter  to  Agnes — He  reaches  Zanzibar — Calls  on  Sultan — Presents  the 
«*  Thule"  to  him  from  Bombay  Government — Monotony  of  Zanzibar  life- 
Leaves  in  "  Penguin"  for  the  continent. 

The  object  for  which  Dr.  Livingstone  set  out  on  his 
third  and  last  great  African  journey  is  thus  stated  in 
the  preface  to  The  Zambesi  and  its  Tributaries :  "  Our 
Government  have  supported  the  proposal  of  the  Koyal 
Geographical  Society  made  by  my  friend  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison,  and  have  united  with  that  body  to  aid  me  in 
another  attempt  to  open  Africa  to  civilizing  influences, 
and  a  valued  private  friend  has  given  a  thousand  pounds 
for  the  same  object.  I  propose  to  go  inland,  north  of  the 
territory  which  the  Portuguese  in  Europe  claim,  and 
endeavor  to  commence  that  system  on  the  East  which  has 
been  so  eminently  successful  on  the  West  Coast :  a  system 
combining  the  repressive  efforts  of  Her  Majesty's  cruisers 
with  lawful  trade  and  Christian  missions — the  moral  and 
material  results  of  which  have  been  so  gratifying.  I  hope 
to  ascend  the  Rovuma,  or  some  other  river  north  of  Cape 
Delgado,  and,  in  addition  to  my  other  work,  shall  strive, 


FROM  ENGLAND  TO  ZANZIBAR,  ZTt 

by  passing  along  the  northern  end  of  Lake  Nyassa,  and 
round  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Tanganyika,  to  ascertain 
the  watershed  of  that  part  of  Africa." 

The  first  part  of  the  scheme  was  his  own,  the  second 
he  had  been  urged  to  undertake  by  the  Geographical 
Society.  The  sums  in  aid  contributed  by  Government 
and  the  Geographical  society  were  only  £500  each;  but 
it  was  not  thought  that  the  work  would  occupy  a  long 
time.  The  Geographical  Society  coupled  their  contri- 
bution with  some  instructions  as  to  observations  and 
reports  which  seemed  to  Dr.  Livingstone  needlessly 
stringent,  and  which  certainly  ruffled  his  relation  to  the 
Society.  The  honorary  position  of  Consul  at  large  he  was 
willing  to  accept  for  the  sake  of  the  influence  which  it 
gave  him,  though  still  retaining  his  opinion  of  the  shab- 
biness  which  had  so  explicitly  bargained  that  he  was  to 
have  no  salary  and  to  expect  no  pension. 

The  truth  is,  if  Livingstone  had  not  been  the  most 
single-minded  and  trustful  of  men,  he  would  never  have 
returned  to  Africa  on  such  terms.  The  whole  sum  placed 
at  his  disposal  was  utterly  inadequate  to  defray  the  cost 
of  the  Expedition,  and  support  his  family  at  home.  Had 
it  not  been  for  promises  that  were  never  fulfilled,  he  would 
not  have  left  his  family  at  this  time  as  he  did.  But  in 
nothing  is  the  purity  of  his  character  seen  more  beautifully 
than  in  his  bearing  toward  some  of  those  who  had  gained 
not  a  little  consideration  by  their  connection  with  him, 
and  had  made  him  fair  promises,  but  left  him  to  work  on 
as  best  he  might.  No  trace  of  bitter  feeling  disturbed 
him,  or  abated  the  strength  of  his  love  and  confidence. 

Dr.  Livingston  went  first  to  Paris  with  his  daughter, 
and  left  her  there  for  education.  Passing  on  he  reached 
Marseilles  on  the  19th  August,  and  wrote  her  a  few  lines, 
in  which  he  informed  her  that  the  man  who  was  now 
transforming  Paris  [Baron  Hausmann]  was  a  Protestant, 
and  had  once  taught  a  Sunday-school  in  the  south  of 


378  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

France ;  and  that  probably  he  had  greater  pleasure  in  the 
first  than  in  the  second  work.  The  remark  had  a  certain 
applicability  to  his  own  case,  and  probably  let  out  a 
little  of  his  own  feeling;  it  showed  at  least  his  estimate 
of  the  relative  place  of  temporal  and  spiritual  philan- 
thropy. The  prayer  that  followed  was  expressive  of  his 
deepest  feelings  toward  his  best-beloved  on  earth  :  "  May 
the  Almighty  qualify  you  to  be  a  blessing  to  those  around 
you,  wherever  your  lot  is  cast.  I  know  that  you  hate 
all  that  is  mean  and  false.  May  God  make  you  good, 
and  to  delight  in  doing  good  to  others.  If  you  ask  He 
will  give  abundantly.     The  Lord  bless  you !" 

From  a  Bombay  gentleman  who  was  his  fellow-traveler 
to  India  a  little  anecdote  has  casually  come  to  our  knowl- 
edge illustrating  the  unobtrusiveness  of  Livingstone — his 
dislike  to  be  made  a  lion  of  At  the  table-d'hdte  of  the 
hotel  in  Marseilles,  where  some  Bombay  merchants  were 
sitting,  the  conversation  turned  on  Africa  in  connection 
with  ivory — an  extensive  article  of  trade  in  Bombay. 
One  friend  dropped  the  remark,  "  I  wonder  where  that  old 
chap  Livingstone  is  now."  To  his  surprise  and  discom- 
fiture, a  voice  replied,  "  Here  he  is."  They  were  fast 
friends  all  through  the  voyage  that  followed.  Little  of 
much  interest  happened  during  that  voyage.  Livingstone 
writes  that  Palgrave  was  in  Cairo  when  he  passed  through, 
but  he  did  not  see  him.  Of  Baker  he  could  hear  nothing. 
Miss  Tinne,  the  Dutch  lady,  of  whom  he  thought  highly 
as  a  traveler,  had  not  been  very  satisfactory  to  the  religious 
part  of  the  English  community  at  Cairo.  Miss  Whately 
was  going  home  for  six  wrecks,  but  was  to  be  back  to  her 
Egyptian  Ragged  School.  He  saw  the  end  of  the  Lesseps 
Canal,  about  the  partial  opening  of  which  they  were 
making  a  great  noise.  Many  thought  it  would  succeed, 
though  an  Egyptian  Commodore  had  said  to  him,  "  It  is 
hombog."  The  Red  Sea  was  fearfully  hot  and  steamy. 
The  "  Lady  Nyassa"  hung  like  a  millstone  around  his  neck, 


FROM  ENGLAND  TO  ZANZIBAR,  379 

and  he  was  prepared  to  sell  her  for  whatever  she  might 
bring.     Borabay  was  reached  on  11th  September. 

TO   AGNES    LIVINGSTONE. 

''^Bombay,  20th  Sept.,  1865. —  .  .  .  By  advice  of  the  Governor,  I 
went  up  to  Nassick  to  see  if  the  Africans  there  under  Government 
instruction  would  suit  my  purpose  as  members  of  the  Expedition.  I 
was  present  at  the  examination  of  a  large  school  under  Mr.  Price  by 
the  Bishop  of  Bombay.  It  is  partly  supported  by  Government.  The 
pupils  (108)  are  not  exclusively  African,  but  all  showed  very  great 
proficiency.  They  excelled  in  music.  I  found  some  of  the  Africans 
to  have  come  from  parts  I  know — one  from  Ndonde  on  the  Rovuma — ■ 
and  all  had  learned  some  handicraft,  l)e8ides  reading,  writing,  etc.,  and 
it  is  probable  that  some  of  them  will  go  back  to  their  own  country  with 
me.  Eight  have  since  volunteered  to  go.  Besides  these  I  am  to  get 
some  men  from  the  '  Marine  Battalion,'  who  have  been  accustomed  to 
rough  it  in  various  ways,  and  their  pensions  will  be  given  to  their 
widows  if  they  should  die.  The  Governor  (Sir  Bartle  Frere)  is  going 
to  do  what  he  can  for  my  success. 

"  After  going  back  to  Bombay  I  came  up  to  near  Poonah,  and  am 
now  at  Government  House,  the  guest  of  the  Governor. 

"Society  here  consists  mainly  of  ofiicers  and  their  wives.  ,  .  • 
Miss  Frere,  in  the  absence  of  Lady  Frere,  does  the  honors  of  the  estab- 
lishment, and  very  nicely  she  does  it.  She  is  very  clever,  and  quite 
unaffected — very  like  her  father.     .     .     . 

"  Christianity  is  gradually  diffusing  itself,  leavening  as  it  were  in 
various  ways  the  whole  mass.  "When  a  man  becomes  a  professor  of 
Christianity,  he  is  at  present  cast  out,  abandoned  by  all  his  relations, 
even  by  wife  and  children.  This  state  of  things  makes  some  who  don't 
care  about  Christian  progress  say  that  all  Christian  servants  are  useless. 
They  are  degraded  by  their  own  countrymen,  and  despised  by  others, 
but  time  will  work  changes.  Mr.  Maine,  who  came  out  here  with  us, 
intends  to  introduce  a  law  whereby  a  convert  deserted  by  his  wife  may 
marry  again.  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  text  in  Corinthians — If  an 
unbelieving  wife  depart,  let  her  depart.  People  will  gradually  show 
more  sympathy  with  the  poor  fellows  who  come  out  of  heathenism, 
and  discriminate  between  the  worthy  and  unworthy.  You  should  read 
Lady  Duff  Gordon's  Letters  from  Egypt,  They  show  a  nice  sympathiz- 
ing heart,  and  are  otherwise  very  interesting.  She  saw  the  people  aa 
they  are.  Most  people  see  only  the  outsides  of  things.  .  .  .  Avoid 
all  nasty  French  novels.  They  are  very  injurious,  and  effect  a  lasting 
injury  on  the  mind  and  heart.  I  go  up  to  Government  House  again 
three  days  hence,  and  am  to  deliver  two  lectures, — one  at  Poonah  and 
one  at  Bombay." 


380  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Some  slight  reminiscences  of  Livingstone  at  Bombay, 
derived  from  admiring  countrymen  of  his  own,  will  not 
be  out  of  place,  considering  that  the  three  or  four  months 
spent  there  was  the  last  period  of  his  life  passed  in  any 
part  of  the  dominions  of  Great  Britain. 

The  Rev.  Dugald  C.  Boyd,  of  Bombay  (now  of  Portsoy, 
Banffshire),  an  intimate  friend  of  Dr.  Stewart,  of  Lovedale, 
writing  to  a  correspondent  on  10th  October,  1865,  says : 

"Yesterday  evening  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Livingstone  at 
dinner  in  a  very  quiet  way.  ...  It  was  an  exceedingly  pleasant 
evening.  Dr.  Wilson  was  in  great  '  fig,'  and  Livingstone  was,  though 
quiet,  very  communicative,  and  greatly  disposed  to  talk  about  Africa. 
...  I  had  known  Mrs.  Livingstone,  and  I  had  known  Robert  and 
Agnes,  his  son  and  daughter,  and  I  had  known  Stewart.  He  spoke 
very  kindly  of  Stewart,  and  seems  to  hope  that  he  may  yet  join  him  in 
Central  Africa.  .  .  .  He  is  much  stouter,  better,  and  healthier- 
looking  than  he  was  last  year.     ,     ,     . 

"  12th  October. — Livingstone  was  at  the  tamasha  yesterday.  He  wa» 
dressed  very  unlike  a  minister — more  like  a  post-captain  or  admiral. 
He  wore  a  blue  dress-coat,  trimmed  with  lace,  and  bearing  a  Govern- 
ment gilt  button.  In  his  hand  he  carried  a  cocked  hat.  At  the  Com- 
munion on  Sunday  (he  sat  on  Dr.  Wilson's  right  hand,  who  sat  on  my 
right)  he  wore  a  blue  surtout,  with  Government  gilt  buttons,  and 
ehepherd-tartan  trousers ;  and  he  had  a  gold  band  round  his  cap.*     I 

*Dr.  Livingstone's  habit  of  dressing  as  a  layman,  and  accepting  the  designa- 
tion of  David  Livingstone,  Esquire,  as  readily  as  that  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Living- 
stone, probably  helped  to  propagate  the  idea  that  he  had  sunk  the  missionary 
in  the  explorer.  The  truth,  however,  is,  that  from  the  first  he  wished  to  be  a 
lay  missionary,  not  under  any  Society,  and  it  was  only  at  the  instigation  of  his 
friends  that  he  accepted  ordination.  He  had  an  intense  dislike  of  what  was 
merely  professional  and  conventional,  and  he  thought  that  as  a  free-lance  he 
would  have  more  influence.  Whether  in  this  he  sufficiently  appreciated  the 
position  and  office  of  one  set  aside  by  the  Church  for  the  service  of  the  gospel 
may  be  a  question :  but  there  can  be  no  question  that  he  had  the  same  view  of 
the  matter  from  first  to  last.  He  would  have  worn  a  blue  dress  and  gilt 
buttons,  if  it  had  been  suitable,  as  readily  as  any  other,  at  the  most  ardent 
period  of  his  missionary  life.  His  heart  was  as  truly  that  of  a  missionary 
under  the  Consul's  dress  as  it  had  ever  been  when  he  wore  black,  or  whatever 
else  he  could  get,  in  the  wilds  of  Africa.  At  the  time  of  his  encounter  with 
the  lion  he  wore  a  coat  of  tartan,  and  he  thought  that  that  material  might  have 
had  some  effect  in  preventing  the  usual  irritating  results  of  a  lion's  bite. 


FBOM  ENGLAND  TO  ZANZIBAR.  381 

spent  two  hours  in  his  society  last  evening  at  Dr.  Wilson's.  He  was 
not  very  complimentary  to  Burton.  He  is  to  lecture  in  public  thia 
evening." 

Another  friend,  Mr.  Alexander  Brown,  now  of  Liver- 
pool, sends  a  brief  note  of  a  very  delightful  excursion 
given  by  him,  in  honor  of  Livingstone,  to  the  caves  of 
Kennery  cr  Kenhari,  in  the  island  of  Salsette.  There  was 
a  pretty  large  party.  After  leaving  the  railway  station, 
they  rode  on  ponies  to  the  caves. 

"  We  spent  a  most  charming  day  in  the  caves,  and  the  wild  jungle 
around  theni.  Dr.  Wilson,  you  may  believe,  was  in  his  element,  pour- 
ing forth  volumes  of  Oriental  lore  in  connection  with  the  Buddhist 
faith  and  the  Kenhari  caves,  which  are  among  the  most  striking  and 
interesting  monuments  of  it  in  India.  They  are  of  great  extent,  and 
the  main  temple  is  in  good  preservation  Doctor  Livingstone's  almost 
boyish  enjoyment  of  the  whole  thing  im],  ressed  me  greatly.  The  stern, 
almost  impassive,  man  seemed  to  unbend,  and  enter  most  thoroughly 
into  the  spirit  of  a  day  in  which  pleasure  and  instruction,  under  cir- 
cumstances of  no  little  interest,  were  so  delightfully  combined." 

At  Bombay  he  heard  disquieting  tidings  of  the  Hano- 
verian traveler.  Baron  van  der  Decken.  In  his  Journal 
he  says : 

'*  2^th  December  J  1865. — The  expedition  of  the  Baron  van  der  Decken 
has  met  with  a  disaster  up  the  Juba.  He  had  gone  up  300  miles,  and 
met  only  with  the  loss  of  his  steam  launch.  He  then  ran  his  steamer 
on  two  rocks  and  made  two  large  holes  in  her  bottom.  The  Baron  and 
Dr.  Link  got  out  in  order  to  go  to  the  chief  to  conciliate  him.  He  had 
been  led  to  suspect  war.  Then  a  large  party  came  and  attacked  them, 
killing  the  artist  Trenn  and  the  chief  engineer.  They  were  beaten  off, 
and  Lieutenant  von  Schift  with  four  survivors  left  in  the  boat,  and  in 
four  days  came  down  the  stream.  Thence  they  came  in  a  dhow  to 
Zanzibar.  It  is  feared  that  the  Baron  may  be  murdered,  but  possibly 
not.     It  looks  ill  that  the  attack  was  made  after  he  landed. 

"  My  times  are  in  thy  hand,  O  Lord  I  Go  Thou  with  me  and  I  am 
safe.  And  above  all,  make  me  useful  in  promoting  Thy  cause  of  peace 
and  good-will  among  men." 

The  rumor  of  the  Baron's  death  was  subsequently  con- 
firmed.    His  mode  of  treating  the  natives  was  the  very 


382  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

opposite  of  Livingstone's,  wlio  regarded  the  manner  of 
his  death  as  another  proof  that  it  was  not  safe  to  disregard 
the  manhood  of  the  African  people. 

The  Bombay  lecture  was  a  great  success.  Dr.  Wilson, 
Free  Church  Missionary,  was  in  the  chair,  and  after  the 
lecture  tried  to  rouse  the  Bombay  merchants,  and  espec- 
ially the  Scotch  ones,  to  help  the  enterprise.  Referring 
to  the  driblets  that  had  been,  contributed  by  Government 
and  the  Geographical  Society,  he  proposed  that  in  Bombav 
they  should  raise  as  much  as  both.  In  his  next  letter  to 
his  daughter,  Livingstone  tells  of  the  success  of  the  lecture, 
of  the  subscription,  which  promised  to  amount  to  £1000 
(it  did  not  quite  do  so),  and  of  his  wish  that  the  Bombay 
merchants  should  use  the  money  for  setting  up  a  trading 
establishment  in  Africa.  "  I  must  first  of  all  find  a  suit- 
able spot;  then  send  back  here  to  let  it  be  known.  I  shall 
then  be  ofi"  in  my  work  for  the  Geographical  Society,  and 
when  that  is  done,  if  I  am  well,  I  shall  come  back  to  the 
first  station."  He  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  facilities  he  had 
received  for  transporting  Indian  buffaloes  and  other  ani- 
mals to  Africa,  and  of  the  extraordinary  kindness  and 
interest  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  and  the  pains  he  had  taken 
to  commend  him  to  the  good  graces  of  the  Sultan  of  Zan- 
zibar, then  in  Bombay.  He  speaks  pleasantly  of  his 
sojourn  with  Dr.  Wilson  and  other  friends.  He  is  par- 
ticularly pleased  with  the  management  and  menu  of  a 
house  kept  by  four  bachelors — and  then  he  adds :  "  Your 
mamma  was  an  excellent  manager  of  the  house,  and  made 
everything  comfortable.  I  suppose  it  is  the  habit  of 
attending  to  little  things  that  makes  such  a  difference  in 
different  houses.  As  I  am  to  be  away  from  all  luxuries 
soon,  I  may  as  well  live  comfortably  with  the  bachelors 
while  I  can." 

To  Mr.  James  Young  he  writes  about  the  "  Lady  Ny- 
assa,"  which  he  had  sold,  after  several  advertisements,  but 
only  for  j£2300 :  "  Th^  whole  of  the  money  given  for  het 


FROM  ENGLAND  TO  ZANZIBAR.  383 

I  dedicated  to  the  great  object  for  which  she  was  built.  I 
am  satisfied  at  having  made  the  effof't;  would  of  course 
have  preferred  to  have  succeeded,  but-  we  are  not  respon- 
sible for  results."  In  reference  to  the  investment  of  the 
money,  it  was  intended  ultimately  to  be  sunk  in  Govern* 
ment  or  railway  securities;  but  meanwhile  he  had  been 
recommended  to  invest  it  in  shares  of  an  Indian  bank. 
Most  unfortunately,  the  bank  failed  a  year  or  two  after* 
ward ;  and  thus  the  whole  of  the  £6000,  which  the  vessel 
had  cost  Livingstone,  vanished  into  air. 

His  little  daughter  Anna  Mary  had  a  good  share  of  hi% 
attention  at  Bombay : 

"24^A  Decemhevj  1865.— I  went  last  night  to  take  tea  in  the  house  of 
a  Hindoo  gentleman  who  is  not  a  professed  Christian.  It  was  a  great 
matter  for  such  to  eat  with  men  not  of  his  caste.  Most  Hindoos  would 
shrink  with  horror  from  contact  with  us.  Seven  little  girls  wer-e 
present,  belonging  to  two  Hindoo  families.  They  were  from  four  or 
five  to  eight  years  old.  They  were  very  pleasant-looking,  of  olive  com- 
plexions. Their  hair  was  tied  in  a  knot  behind,  with  a  wreath  of 
flowers  round  the  knotj  they  had  large  gold  ear-rings  and  European 
dresses.  One  played  very  nicely  on  the  piano,  while  the  rest  sang  very 
nicely  a  funny  song,  which  shows  the  native  way  of  thinking  about 
Bome  of  our  customs.  They  sang  some  nice  hymns,  and  repeated  some 
pieces,  as  the  '  V^reck  of  the  Hesperus,'  which  was  given  at  the  exam- 
ination of  Oswell's  school.  Then  all  sung,  'There  is  a  happy  land,  far, 
far  away,'  and  it,  with  some  of  the  Christian  hymns,  was  beautiful. 
They  speak  English  perfectly,  but  with  a  little  foreign  twang.  All 
joined  in  a  metrical  prayer  before  retiring.  They  have  been  taught  all 
by  their  father,  and  it  was  very  pleasant  to  see  that  this  teaching  had 
brought  out  their  natural  cheerfulness.  Native  children  don't  look 
lively,  but  these  were  brimful  of  fun.  One  not  quite  as  tall  as  yourself 
brought  a  child's  book  to  me,  and  with  great  glee  pointed  out  myself 
tinder  the  lion.  She  can  read  fluently,  as  I  suppose  you  can  by  this 
time  now,  I  said  that  I  would  like  a  little  girl  like  her  to  go  with  me 
to  Africa  to  sing  these  pretty  hymns  to  me  there.  She  said  she  would 
Jike  to  go,  but  should  not  like  to  have  a  black  husband.  This  ia 
Christmas  season,  and  to-morrow  is  held  as  the  day  in  which  our  Lord 
was  born,  an  event  which  angels  made  known  lo  men,  and  it  brought 
great  joy,  and  proclaimed  peace  on  earth  and  good- will  to  men.  Tha« 
Saviour  must  be  your  friend,  and  He  will  be  if  you  ask  Him  so  to  b«. 
He  will  forgive  and  save  you,  and  take  you  into  his  family." 


884  DA  VID  LIVINGSTONE. 

On  New  Yearns  Day,  1866,  he  writes  in  his  Journal; 
*The  Governor  told  me  that  he  had  much  pleasure  in 
giving  Dr.  Kirk  an  appointment ;  he  would  telegraph  to 
him  to-day.  It  is  to  be  at  Zanzibar,  where  he  will  be  of 
great  use  in  promoting  all  good  works." 

It  had  been  arranged  that  Dr.  Livingstone  was  to  cross 
to  Zanzibar  in  the  "  Thule,"  a  steamer  that  had  formed 
part  of  the  squadron  of  Captain  Sherard  Osbom  in  China, 
and  which  Livingstone  had  now  the  honor  of  being  com- 
missioned to  present  to  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar,  as  a  present 
from  Sir  Bartle  Frere  and  the  Bombay  Government. 

We  give  a  few  extracts  from  his  journal  at  sea: 

"  VJth  January. — Issued  flannel  to  all  the  boys  from  Nassick ;  the 
marines  have  theirs  from  Government.  The  boys  sing  a  couple  of 
hymns  every  evening,  and  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer.  I  mean  to  keep 
up  this,  and  make  this  a  Christian  Expedition,  telling  a  little  about 
Christ  wherever  we  go.  His  love  in  coming  down  to  save  men  will 
be  our  theme.     I  dislike  very  much  to  make  my  religion  distasteful  to 

others.     This,  with 's  hypocritical  ostentation,  made  me  have  fewer 

religious  services  on  the  Zambesi  than  would  have  been  desirable,  per- 
haps. He  made  religion  itself  distasteful  by  excessive  ostentation. 
.  .  .  Good  works  gain  the  approbation  of  the  world,  and  though 
there  is  antipathy  in  the  human  heart  to  the  gospel  of  Christ,  yet  when 
Christians  make  their  good  works  shine  all  admire  them.  It  is  when 
great  disparity  exists  between  profession  and  practice  that  we  secure 
the  scorn  of  mankind.  The  Lord  help  me  to  act  in  all  cases  in  thif 
Expedition  as  a  Christian  ought  I" 

'*  23c/  January. — My  second  book  has  been  reviewed  very  favorably 
by  the  Athenceum  and  the  /Saturday  Heview,  and  by  many  newspapers. 
Old  John  Crawford  gives  a  snarl  in  the  Examiner,  but  I  can  afford  that 
it  should  be  so.  4800  copies  were  sold  on  first  night  of  Mr.  Murray's 
sale.     It  is  rather  a  handsome  volume.     I  hope  it  may  do  some  good." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  James  Young  he  writes  of  his  voyage, 
and  discharges  a  characteristic  spurt  of  humor  at  a  mutual 
Edinburgh  acquaintance  who  had  mistaken  an  order  about 
a  magic  lantern : 

^^At  sea,  300  miles  from  Zanzibar,  26ih  January,  1866. — We  have 
enjoyed  fair  weather  in  coming  across  the  weary  waste  oi*  waters.     We 


FROM  ENGLAND  TO  ZANZIBAR,  385 

Btaned  on  the  5th.  The  *  Thule,*  to  be  a  pleasure  yacht,  is  the  most 
incorrigible  roller  ever  known.  The  whole  2000  miles  has  been  an 
everlasting  see-saw,  ehuggy-shoo,  and  enough  to  tire  the  patience  of 
even  a  chemist,  who  is  the  most  patient  of  all  animals.  I  am  pretty 
well  gifted  in  that  respect  myself,  though  I  say  it  that  shouldn't  say  it, 

but  that  Sandy  B 1     The  world  will  never  get  on  till  we  have  a  few 

of  those  instrument-makers  hung.  I  was  particular  in  asking  him  to 
get  me  Scripture  slides  colored,  and  put  in  with  the  magic  lantern,  and 
he  has  not  put  in  onel  The  very  object  for  which  I  wanted  it  is  thus 
frustrated,  and  I  did  not  open  it  till  we  were  at  sea.  0  Sandy  I  Pity 
Burk  and  Hare  have  no  successors  in  Auld  Reekie  1     .     .     . 

"You  will  hear  that  I  have  the  prospect  of  Kirk  being  out  here.  1 
am  very  glad  of  it,  as  I  am  sure  his  services  will  be  found  invaluable 
on  the  East  Coast." 

To  his  daughter  Agnes  he  writes,  h  propos  of  the  rolling 
of  the  ship : 

"Most  of  the  marine  Sepoys  were  sick.  You  would  have  been  a 
victim  unless  you  had  tried  the  new  remedy  of  a  bag  of  pciinded  ice 
along  the  spine,  which  sounds  as  hopeful  as  the  old  cure  for  toothache : 
take  a  mouthful  of  cold  water,  and  sit  on  the  fire  till  it  boils,  you  will 
Buffer  no  more  from  toothache.  ...  A  shark  took  a  bite  at  the 
revolving  vane  of  the  patent  log  to-day.  He  left  some  pieces  of  the 
enamel  of  his  teeth  in  the  brass,  and  probably  has  the  toothache.  You 
will  sympathize  with  him.  ...  If  you  ask  Mr.  Murray  to  send, 
by  Mr.  Conyngham,  Buckland's  Curiosities  of  Natural  History,  and  Mr. 
(jrladstone's  Address  to  the  Edinburgh  Students,  it  will  save  me  writing  to 
him.  When  you  return  home  you  will  be  scrutinized  to  see  if  you  are 
spoiled.  You  have  only  to  act  naturally  and  kindly  to  all  your  old 
friends  to  disarm  them  of  their  prejudices.  I  think  you  will  find  the 
Youngs  true  friends.  Mrs.  Williamson,  of  Widdicombe  Hill,  near 
Bath,  writes  to  me  that  she  would  like  to  show  you  her  plans  for  the 
benefit  of  poor  orphans.  If  you  thought  of  going  to  Bath  it  might  be 
well  to  get  all  the  insight  you  could  into  that  and  every  other  good 
work.  It  is  well  to  be  able  to  take  a  comprehensive  view  of  all  benevo- 
lent enterprises,  and  resolve  to  do  our  duty  in  life  in  some  way  or  other, 
for  we  cannot  live  for  ourselves  alone.  A  life  of  selfishness  is  one  of 
misery,  and  it  is  unlike  that  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  who  pleased  not 
Himself.  He  followed  not  his  own  will  even,  but  the  will  of  his  Father 
in  heaven.  I  have  read  with  much  pleasure  a  book  called  Rose  Douglas. 
It  is  the  life  of  a  minister's  daughter — with  fictitious  names,  but  all 
true.  She  was  near  Lanark,  and  came  through  Hamilton.  You  had 
better  read  it  if  you  come  in  contact  with  it." 
83 


386  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Referring  to  an  alarm,  arising  from  the  next  house 
having  taken  fire,  of  which  she  had  written  him,  he  adds 
playfully  ; 

"  You  did  not  mention  wliat  you  considered  Most  precious  on  the 
night  of  the  fire;  so  I  dreamed  that  I  saw  one  young  lady  hugging  a 
German  grammar  to  her  bosom  ;  another  with  a  pair  of  curling  tongs, 
a  tooth-pick,  and  a  pinafore ;  another  with  a  bunch  of  used-up  postage 
stamps  and  autographs  in  a  crinoline  turned  upside  down,  and  a  fourth 
lifted  up  Madame  Hocede  and  insisted  on  carrying  her  as  her  most 
precious  baggage.  Her  name,  which  I  did  not  catch,  will  go  down  to 
posterity  alongside  of  the  ladies  who  each  carried  out  her  husband 
from  the  besieged  city,  and  took  care  never  to  let  him  hear  the  last  on't 
afterward.  I  am  so  penetrated  with  admiration  of  her  that  I  enclose 
the  wing  of  a  flying-fish  for  her.  It  lighted  among  us  last  night,  while 
we  were  at  dinner,  coming  right  through  the  skylight.  You  will  make 
use  of  this  fact  in  the  higli-Jiying  speech  which  you  will  deliver  to  her  in 
French." 

Zanzibar  is  at  length  reached  on  the  28th  January,  after 
a  voyage  of  twenty -three  days,  tedious  enough,  though  bat 
half  the  length  of  the  cruise  in  the  "Njassa"  two  years 
before.     To  Agnes : 

"29^A  Jan. — We  went  to  call  to-day  on  the  Sultan.  His  Highnces 
met  us  at  the  bottom  of  the  stair,  and  as  he  shook  hands  a  brass  band, 
which  he  got  at  Bombay,  blared  forth  'God  save  the  Queen'!  This 
was  excessively  ridiculous,  but  I  maintained  sufficient  official  gravitv. 
After  coffee  and  sherbet  we  came  away,  and  the  wretched  band  now 
struck  up  '  The  British  Grenadier,*  as  if  the  fact  of  my  being  only 
5  feet  8,  and  Brebner  about  2  inches  lower,  ought  not  to  have  suggested 
*  Wee  Willie  Winkie'  as  more  appropriate.  I  was  ready  to  explode, 
but  got  out  of  sight  before  giving  way." 

Dr.  Livingstone  brought  a  very  cordial  recommendation 
to  the  Sultan  from  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  and  experienced  much 
kindness  at  his  hand.  Being  ill  with  toothache,  the  Sultan 
could  not  receive  the  gift  of  the  "  Thule"  in  person,  and  it 
was  presented  through  his  commodore. 

Livingstone  was  detained  in  Zanzibar  nearly  two  months 
waiting  for  L..M.S.  "  Penguin,"  which  was  to  convey  him 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Rovuma.     Zanzibar  life  was  very 


FROM  ENGLAND  TO  ZANZIBAR.  387 

monotonous — "It  is  the  old,  old  way  of  living — eating, 
drinking,  sleeping;  sleeping,  drinking,  eating.  Getting 
fat;  slaving-dhows  coming  and  slaving-dhows  going  away; 
bad  smells ;  and  kindly  looks  from  English  folks  to  each 
other."  The  sight  of  slaves  in  the  Zanzibar  market,  and 
the  recognition  of  some  who  had  been  brought  from 
Nyassa,  did  not  enliven  his  visit,  though  it  undoubtedly 
confirmed  his  purpose  and  quickened  his  efforts  to  aim 
another  blow  at  the  accursed  trade.  Always  thinking  of 
what  would  benefit  Africa,  he  writes  to  Sir  Thomas  Mac- 
lear  urging  very  strongly  the  starting  of  a  line  of  steamers 
between  the  Cape,  Zanzibar,  and  Bombay :  "  It  would  be 
a  most  profitable  one,  and  would  do  great  good,  besides, 
in  eating  out  the  trade  in  slaves." 

At  last  the  "  Penguin  "  came  for  him,  and  once  more, 
and  for  the  last  time,  Livingstone  left  for  the  Dark  Conti- 
nent. 


388  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTER  XIX, 

FROM   ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL 
A.D.  1866-1869. 

Dr.  Livingstone  goes  to  mouth  of  Rovuma — His  prayer — His  company — His 
herd  of  animals — Loss  of  his  buffaloes — Good  spirits  when  setting  out- 
Difficulties  at  Rovuma — Bad  conduct  of  Johanna  men — Dismissal  of  his 
Sepoys — Fresh  horrors  of  slave-trade — Uninhabited  tract — He  reaches  Lake 
Nyassa — Letter  to  his  son  Thomas — Disappointed  hopes — His  double  aim, 
to  teach  natives  and  rouse  horror  of  slave-trade — Tenor  of  religious  addresses 
— Wikatami  remains  behind — Livingstone  finds  no  altogether  satisfactory 
station  for  commerce  and  missions — Question  of  the  watershed — Was  it 
worth  the  trouble? — Overruled  for  good  to  Africa — Opinion  of  Sir  Bartle 
frere — At  Marenga's — The  Johanna  men  leave  in  a  body — Circulate  rumor 
of  his  murder — Sir  Roderick  disbelieves  it — Mr.  E.  D.  Young  sent  out  with 
Search  Expedition — Finds  proof  against  rumor — Livingstone  half-starved — • 
Loss  of  his  goats — Review  of  1866 — Reflections  on  Divine  Providence- 
Letter  to  Thomas — His  dog  drowned — Loss  of  his  medicine-chest — He  feels 
sentence  of  death  passed  on  him — First  sight  of  Lake  Tanganyika — Detained 
at  Chitimba's — Discovery  of  Lake  Moero—  Occupations  during  detention  of 
1867 — Great  privations  and  difficulties — Illness — Rebellion  among  his  men 
— Discovery  of  Lake  Bangweolo — Its  oozy  banks — Detention — Sufferings- 
He  makes  for  Ujiji — Very  severe  illness  in  beginning  of  1869 — Reaches 
Ujiji — Finds  his  goods  have  been  wasted  and  stolen — Most  bitter  disappoint- 
ment— His  medicines,  etc.,  at  Unyanyembe — Letter  to  Sultan  of  Zanzibar — 
Letters  to  Dr.  Moffat  and  his  daughter. 

On  the  19th  of  March,  fortified  by  a  firman  from  the 
Sultan  to  all  his  people,  and  praying  the  Most  High  to 
prosper  him,  "  by  granting  him  influence  in  the  eyes  of 
the  heathen,  and  blessing  his  intercourse  with  them," 
Livingstone  left  Zanzibar  in  H.M.S.  "Penguin"  for  the 
mouth  of  the  Rovuma.  His  company  consisted  of  thir- 
teen Sepoys,  ten  Johanna  men,  nine  Nassick  boys,  two 
Shupanga  men,  and  two  Waiyau.  Musa,  one  of  the 
Johanna  men,  had  been  a  sailor  in  the  "Lady  Nyassa"; 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  389 

Susi  and  Amoda,  the  Shupanga  men,  had  been  wood- 
cutters for  the  "Pioneer";  and  the  two  Waiyau  lads,  Wika- 
tani  and  Chuma,  had  been  among  the  slaves  rescued  in 
1861,  and  had  lived  for  some  time  at  the  mission  station 
at  Chibisa^s.  Besides  these,  he  carried  with  him  a  sort  of 
menagerie  in  a  dhow — six  camels,  three  buffaloes  and  a 
calf,  two  mules,  and  four  donkeys.  What  man  but  Dr. 
Livingstone  would  have  encumbered  himself  with  such 
baggage,  and  for  what  conceivable  purpose  except  the 
benefit  of  Africa?  The  tame  buffaloes  of  India  were 
taken  that  he  might  try  whether,  like  the  wild  buffaloes 
of  Africa,  they  would  resist  the  bite  of  the  tsetse-fly ;  the 
other  animals  for  the  same  purpose.  There  were  two 
words  of  which  Livingstone  might  have  said,  as  Queen 
Mary  said  of  Calais,  that  at  his  death  they  would  be  found 
engraven  on  his  heart — fever  and  tsetse ;  the  one  the  great 
scourge  of  man,  the  other  of  beast,  in  South  Africa.  To 
help  to  counteract  two  such  foes  to  African  civilization  no 
trouble  or  expense  would  have  been  judged  too  great. 
Already  he  had  lost  nine  of  his  buffaloes  at  Zanzibar.  It 
was  a  sad  pity  that  owing  to  the  ill-treatment  of  the 
remaining  animals  by  his  people,  who  turned  out  a  poor 
lot,  it  could  never  be  known  conclusively  whether  the 
tsetse-bite  was  fatal  to  them  or  not. 

In  spite  of  all  he  had  suffered  in  Atrica,  and  though 
he  was  without  the  company  of  a  single  European,  he 
had,  in  setting  out,  something  of  the  exhilarating  feeling 
of  a  young  traveler  starting  on  his  first  tour  in  Switzer- 
land, deepened  by  the  sense  of  nobility  which  there  is 
in  every  endeavor  to  do  good  to  others.  "The  mere 
animal  pleasure  of  traveling  in  a  wild  unexplored  country 
is  very  great.  ,  .  .  The  sweat  of  one's  brow  is  no 
longer  a  curse  when  one  works  for  God ;  it  proves  a  tonic 
to  the  system,  and  is  actually  a  blessing."  The  Rovuma 
was  found  to  have  changed  greatly  since  his  last  visit,  so 
that  he  had  to  land  his  goods  twenty-five  miles  to  the 


S90  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

north  at  Mikindany  harbor,  and  find  his  way  down  to 
the  river  farther  up.  The  toil  was  fitted  to  wear  out  the 
strongest  of  his  men.  Nothing  could  have  been  more 
grateful  than  the  Sunday  rest.  Through  his  Nassick  boys, 
he  tried  to  teach  the  Makonde — a  tribe  that  bore  a  very 
bad  character,  but  failed ;  however,  the  people  were  wonder- 
fully civil,  and,  contrary  to  all  previous  usage,  neither 
inflicted  fines  nor  made  complaints,  though  the  animals 
had  done  some  damage  to  their  corn.  He  set  this  down 
as  an  answer  to  his  prayers  for  influence  among  the 
heathen. 

His  vexations,  however,  were  not  long  of  beginning. 
Both  the  Sepoy  marines  and  the  Nassick  boys  were  ex- 
tremely troublesome,  and  treated  the  animals  abominably. 
The  Johanna  men  were  thieves.  The  Sepoys  became  so 
intolerable  that  after  four  months*  trial  he  sent  most  of 
them  back  to  the  coast.  It  required  an  efibrt  to  resist  the 
effect  of  suck  things,  owing  to  the  tendency  of  the  mind 
to  brood  over  the  ills  of  travel.  The  natives  were  not 
unkindly,  but  food  was  y^cy  scarce.  As  they  advanced, 
the  horrors  of  the  slave-trade  presented  themselves  in  all 
their  hideous  aspects.  Women  were  found  dead,  tied 
to  trees,  or  lying  in  the  path  shot  and  stabbed,  their  fault 
having  been  inability  to  keep  up  with  the  party,  while 
their  amiable  owners,  to  prevent  them  from  becoming  the 
property  of  any  one  else,  put  an  end  to  their  lives.  In 
some  instances  the  captives,  yet  in  the  slave-sticks,  were 
found  not  quite  dead.  Brutality  was  sometimes  seen  in 
another  form,  as  when  some  natives  laughed  at  a  poor  boy 
suffering  from  a  very  awkward  form  of  hernia,  whose 
mother  was  trying  to  bind  up  the  part.  The  slave-trade 
utterly  demoralized  the  people;  the  Arabs  bought  who- 
ever was  brought  to  them,  and  the  great  extent  of  forest 
in  the  country  favored  kidnapping ;  otherwise  the  people 
were  honest. 

Farther  on  they  passed  through  an  immense  uninhabited 


Jt'KOM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  391 

tract,  that  had  once  evidently  had  a  vast  population.  Then, 
in  the  Waiyau  country,  west  of  Mataka's,  came  a  splendid 
district  3400  feet  above  the  sea,  as  well  adapted  for  a  settle- 
ment as  Magomero,  but  it  had  taken  them  four  months  to 
get  at  it,  while  Magomero  was  reached  in  three  weeks. 
The  abandonment  of  that  mission  he  would  never  cease  to 
regret.  As  they  neared  Lake  Nyassa,  slave  parties  became 
more  common.  On  the  8th  August,  1866,  they  reached 
the  lake,  which  seemed  to  Livingstone  like  an  old  familiar 
friend  which  he  never  expected  to  see  again.  He  thanked 
God,  bathed  again  in  the  delicious  water,  and  felt  quite 
exhilarated. 

Writing  to  his  son  Thomas,  28th  August,  he  says : 

"  The  Sepoys  were  morally  unfit  for  travel,  and  then  we  had  hard 
lines,  all  of  us.  Food  was  not  to  be  had  for  love  or  money.  Our  finest 
cloths  only  brought  miserable  morsels  of  the  common  grain.  I  trudged 
it  the  whole  way,  and  having  no  animal  food  save  what  turtle-dovea 
and  guinea-fowls  we  occasionally  shot,  I  became  like  one  of  Pharaoh's 
lean  kine.  The  last  tramp  [to  NyassaJ  brought  us  to  a  land  of  plenty. 
It  was  over  a  very  fine  country,  but  quite  depopulated.  •  •  .  The 
principal  chief,  named  Mataka,  lives  on  the  watershed  overhanging 
this,  but  fifty  miles  or  more  distant  from  this  j  his  town  contained  a 
thousand  houses — many  of  them  square,  in  imitation  of  the  Arabs. 
Large  patches  of  English  peas  in  full  bearing  grew  in  the  moist  hollows, 
or  were  irrigated.  Cattle  showed  that  no  tsetse  existed.  When  we 
arrived,  Mataka  was  just  sending  back  a  number  of  cattle  and  captives 
to  their  own  homeso  They  had  been  taken  by  his  people  without  his 
knowledge  from  Nyassa.  I  saw  them  by  accident :  there  were  fifty-four 
women  and  children,  about  a  dozen  young  men  and  boys,  and  about 
twenty-five  or  thirty  head  of  cattle.  As  the  act  was  spontaneous,  it 
was  the  more  gratifying  to  witness.     ,     . 

"  I  sometimes  remember  you  with  soire  anxiety,  as  not  knowing 
what  opening  may  be  made  for  you  in  life.  .  .  .  Whatever  you  feel 
yourself  best  fitted  for,  *  commit  thy  way  to  the  Lord,  trust  also  in 
Him,  and  He  will  bring  it  to  pass.'  One  ought  to  endeavor  to  devote 
the  peculiarities  of  his  nature  to  his  Redeemer's  service,  whatever  these 
may  be." 

Resting  at  the  lake,  and  working  np  journal,  lunars, 
and  altitudes,  he  hears  of  the  arrival  of  an  Englishman  at 


392  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Mataka's,  with  cattle  for  him,  "  who  had  two  eyes  behind 
as  well  as  two  in  front — news  enough  for  awhile."  Zoology, 
botany,  and  geology  engage  his  attention  as  usual.  He 
tries  to  get  across  the  lake,  but  cannot,  as  the  slavers 
own  all  the  dhows,  and  will  neither  lend  nor  sell  to  him ; 
be  has  therefore  to  creep  on  foot  round  its  southern  end. 
Marks  of  destruction  and  desolation  again  shock  the  eye 
— skulls  and  bones  everywhere.  At  the  point  where  the 
Shire  leaves  Nyassa,  he  could  not  but  think  of  disap- 
pointed hopes — the  death  of  his  dear  wife,  and  of  the 
Bishop,  the  increasing  vigor  of  the  slave-trade,  and  the 
abandonment  of  the  Universities  Mission.  But  faith 
assured  him  of  good  times  coming,  though  he  might  not 
live  to  see  them.  Would  only  he  had  seen  through  the 
vista  of  the  next  ten  years!  Bishop  Tozer  done  with 
Africa,  and  Bishop  Steere  returning  to  the  old  neigh- 
borhood, and  resuming  the  old  work  of  the  Universities 
Mission ;  and  his  own  countrymen  planted  his  name  on 
the  promontory  on  which  he  gazed  so  sorrowfully,  train- 
ing the  poor  natives  in  the  arts  of  civilization,  rearing 
Christian  households  among  them,  and  proclaiming  the 
blessed  Gospel  of  the  God  of  love  I 

Invariably  as  he  goes  along,  Dr.  Livingstone  aims  at 
two  things :  at  teaching  some  of  the  great  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  rousing  consciences  on  the  atrocious  guilt  of 
the  slave-trade.  In  connection  with  the  former  he  dis- 
covers that  his  usual  way  of  conducting  divine  service — 
by  the  reading  of  prayers — does  not  give  ignorant  persons 
any  idea  of  an  unseen  Being ;  kneeling  and  praying  with 
the  eyes  shut  is  better.  At  the  foot  of  the  lake  he  goes 
out  of  his  way  to  remonstrate  with  Mukate,  one  of  the 
chief  marauders  of  the  district.  The  tenor  of  his  addresses 
is  in  some  degree  shaped  by  the  practices  he  finds  so 
prevalent : 

"We  mention  our  relationship  to  our  Father,  the  guilt 
of  selling  any  of  his  children,  the  consequences: — e.g,  it 


Fntym  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  393 

begets  war,  for  as  they  don't  like  to  sell  their  own, 
they  steal  from  other  villagers,  who  retaliate.  Arabs  and 
Waiyau,  invited  into  the  country  by  their  selling,  foster 
feuds, — wars  and  depopulation  ensue.  We  mention  the 
Bible — future  state — prayer;  advise  union,  that  they 
would  unite  as  one  family  to  expel  enemies,  who  came 
first  as  slave-traders,  and  ended  by  leaving  the  country 
a  wilderness." 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Wikatani,  one  of  the 
two  Waiyau  boys  who  had  been  rescued  from  slavery, 
finding,  as  he  believed  or  said,  some  brothers  and  sisters 
on  the  western  shore  of  the  lake,  left  Livingstone  and 
remained  with  them.  There  had  been  an  impression  in 
some  quarters,  that,  according  to  his  wont,  Livingstone 
had  made  him  his  slave ;  to  show  the  contrary,  he  gave 
him  his  choice  of  remaining  or  going,  and,  when  the  boy 
chose  to  remain,  he  acquiesced. 

Dr.  Livingstone  had  ere  now  passed  over  the  ground 
where,  if  anywhere,  he  might  have  hoped  to  find  a  station 
for  a  commercial  and  missionary  settlement,  independent 
of  the  Portuguese.  In  this  hope  he  was  rather  disap- 
pointed. The  only  spot  he  refers  to  is  the  district  west 
of  Mataka's,  which,  however,  was  so  difficult  of  access. 
Nearer  the  coast  a  mission  might  be  established,  and  to 
this  project  his  mind  turned  afterward ;  but  it  would 
not  command  the  Nyassa  district.  On  the  whole  he  pre- 
ferred the  Zambesi  and  Shire  valley,  with  all  their  diffi* 
culties.  But  the  Rovuma  was  not  hopeless,  and  indeed, 
within  the  last  few  years,  the  Universities  Mission  has 
occupied  the  district  successfully. 

The  geographical  question  of  the  watershed  had  now 
to  be  grappled  with.  It  is  natural  to  ask  whether  this 
question  was  of  sufficient  importance  to  engage  his  main 
energies,  and  justify  the  incalculable  sacrifices  under- 
gone by  him  during  the  remaining  six  years  of  his  life. 
First  of  all,  we  must  remember,  it  was  not  his  own  scheme 


394  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

' — it  was  pressed  on  him  by  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  and 
the  Geographical  Society ;  and  it  may  perhaps  be  doubted 
whether,  had  he  foreseen  the  cost  of  the  enterprise,  he 
would  have  deemed  the  object  worthy  of  the  price.  But 
ever  and  anon,  he  seemed  to  be  close  on  what  he  was 
searching  for,  and  certain  to  secure  it  by  just  a  little 
further  effort ;  while  as  often,  like  the  cup  of  Tantalus,  it 
was  snatched  from  his  grasp.  Moreover,  during  a  life- 
time of  splendid  self-discipline,  he  had  been  training  him- 
self to  keep  his  promises,  and  to  complete  his  tasks; 
nor  could  he  in  any  way  see  it  his  duty  to  break  the  one 
or  leave  the  Mher  unfinished.  He  had  undertaken  to 
the  Geographical  Society  to  solve  that  problem,  and  he 
Tould  do  it  if  it  could  be  done.  Wherever  he  went  he 
had  always  some  opportunity  to  make  known  the  father- 
hood of  God  and  his  love  in  Christ,  although  the  seed 
he  sowed  seemed  seldom  to  take  root.  Then  he  was 
gathering  fresh  information  on  the  state  of  the  country 
and  the  habits  of  the  people.  He  was  especially  gathering 
information  on  the  accursed  slave-trade. 

This  question  of  the  watershed,  too,  had  fascinated  his 
mind,  for  he  had  a  strong  impression  that  the  real  sources 
of  the  Nile  were  far  higher  than  any  previous  traveler 
had  supposed — far  higher  than  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza, 
and  that  it  would  be  a  service  to  religion  as  well  as 
science  to  discover  the  fountains  of  the  stream  on  whose 
bosom,  in  the  dawn  of  Hebrew  history,  Moses  had  floated 
in  his  ark  of  bulrushes.  A  strong  impression  lurked  in 
his  mind  that  if  he  should  only  solve  that  old  problem  he 
would  acquire  such  influence  that  new  weight  would  be 
given  to  his  pleadings  for  Africa ;  just  as,  at  the  beginning 
of  his  career,  he  had  wished  for  a  commanding  style  of 
composition,  to  be  able  to  rouse  the  attention  of  the  world 
to  that  ill-treated  continent. 

He  was  strongly  disposed  to  think  that  in  the  account 
of  the  sources  given  to  Plerodotus  by  tue   Registrar  oi 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  395 

Minerva  in  the  temple  of  Sais,  that  individual  was  not 
joking,  as  the  father  of  history  supposed.  He  thought 
that  in  the  watershed  the  two  conical  hills,  Crophi  and 
Mophi  might  be  found,  and  the  fountains  between  them 
which  it  was  impossible  to  fathom ;  and  that  it  might  be 
seen  that  from  that  region  there  was  a  river  flowing 
north  to  Egypt,  and  another  flowing  south  to  a  country 
that  might  have  been  called  Ethiopia.  But  whatever 
might  be  his  views  or  aims,  it  was  ordained  that  in  the 
wanderings  of  his  last  years  he  should  bring  within  the 
sympathies  of  the  Christian  world  many  a  poor  tribe  other- 
wise unknown ;  that  he  should  witness  sights,  surpassing 
all  he  had  ever  seen  before  of  the  inhumanity  and  horrors 
of  the  slave-traffic — sights  that  harrowed  his  inmost  soul ; 
and  that  when  his  final  appeal  to  his  countrymen  on 
oehalf  of  its  victims  came,  not  from  his  living  voice  but 
from  his  tomb,  it  should  gather  from  a  thousand  touching 
associations  a  thrilling  power  that  would  rouse  the  world, 
and  finally  root  out  the  accursed  thing. 

A  very  valuable  testimony  was  borne  by  Sir  Bartle 
Frere  to  the  real  aims  of  Livingstone,  and  the  value  of  his 
work,  especially  in  this  last  journey,  in  a  speech  delivered 
in  the  Glasgow  Chamber  of  Commerce,  10th  November, 
1876: 

"The  object,"  he  said,  "of  Dr.  Livingstone's  geographical  and 
Bcientific  explorations  was  to  lead  his  countrymen  to  the  great  work  of 
Christianizing  and  civilizing  the  millions  of  Central  Africa.  You  will 
recollect  how,  when  first  he  came  back  from  his  wonderful  journey, 
though  we  were  all  greatly  startled  by  his  achievements  and  by  what 
he  told  us,  people  really  did  not  lay  what  he  said  much  to  heart.  They 
were  stimulated  to  take  up  the  cause  of  African  discovery  again,  and 
other  travelers  went  out  and  did  excellent  service;  but  the  great  fe,ct 
which  was  from  the  very  first  upon  Livingstone's  mind,  and  which  he 
used  to  impress  upon  you,  did  not  make  the  impression  he  wished,  and 
although  a  good  many  people  took  more  and  more  interest  in  the 
civilization  of  Africa  and  in  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  which  he 
}va6Bted  ©cr.t  was  the  great  obstacle  to  all  progress,  still  it  did  not  come 


896  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

home  to  the  people  generally.  It  was  not  until  his  third  and  last 
journey,  when  he  wa8  no  more  to  return  among  us,  that  the  descrip- 
tions which  he  gave  of  the  horrors  of  the  slave-trade  in  the  interior 
really  took  hold  upon  the  mind  of  the  people  of  this  country,  and  made 
them  determine  that  what  used  to  be  considered  the  crotchet  of  a  few 
religious  minds  and  humanitarian  sort  of  persons,  should  be  a  phase  of 
tbe  great  work  which  this  country  had  undertaken,  to  free  the  African 
races,  and  to  abolish,  in  the  first  place,  the  slave-trade  by  sea,  and  then, 
as  we  hope,  the  slaving  by  land." 

In  September  an  Arab  slaver  was  met  at  Marenga's, 
who  told  Musa,  one  of  the  Johanna  men,  that  all 
the  country  in  front  was  full  of  Mazitu,  a  warlike 
tribe;  that  forty-four  Arabs  and  their  followers  had 
been  killed  by  them  at  Kasunga,  and  that  he  only 
had  escaped.  Musa's  heart  was  filled  with  consternation. 
It  was  in  vain  that  Marenga  assured  him  that  there  were 
no  Mazitu  in  the  direction  in  which  he  was  going,  and 
that  Livingstone  protested  to  him  that  he  would  give 
them  a  wide  berth.  The  Johanna  men  wanted  an  excuse 
for  going  back,  but  in  such  a  way  that,  when  they  reached 
Zanzibar,  they  should  get  their  pay.  They  left  him  in  a 
body,  and  when  they  got  to  Zanzibar,  circulated  a  circum- 
stantial report  that  he  had  been  murdered.  In  December^ 
1866,  Musa  appeared  at  Zanzibar,  and  told  how  Living- 
stone had  crossed  Lake  Nyassa  to  its  western  or  north- 
western shore,  and  was  pushing  on  west  or  northwest, 
when,  between  Marenga  and  Maklisoora,  a  band  of  savages 
stopped  their  way,  and  rushed  on  him  and  his  small  band 
of  followers,  now  reduced  to  twenty.  Livingstone  fired 
twice,  and  killed  two ;  but,  in  the  act  of  reloading,  three 
Mafite  leaped  upon  him  through  the  smoke,  one  of  them 
felled  him  v\ath  an  axe-cut  from  behind,  and  the  blow 
nearly  severed  his  head  from  his  body.  The  Johanna 
men  fled  into  the  thick  jungle,  and  miraculously  escaped. 
Returning  to  the  scene  of  the  tragedy,  they  found  the 
body  of  their  master,  and  in  a  shallow  grave  dug  with 
some  stakes,  they  committed  his  remains  to  the  ground. 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  397 

Many  details  were  given  regarding  the  Sepoys,  and 
regarding  the  after  fortunes  of  Musa  and  his  companions. 
Under  cross-examination  Musa  stood  firmly  to  his  story, 
which  was  believed  both  by  Dr.  Seward  and  Dr.  Kirk,  of 
Zanzibar.  But  when  the  tidings  reached  England,  doubt 
was  thrown  on  them  by  some  of  those  best  qualified  to 
judge.  Mr.  Edward  D.  Young,  who  had  had  dealings 
with  Musa,  and  knew  him  to  be  a  liar,  was  suspicious  of 
the  story;  so  was  Mr.  Horace  Waller.  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison,  too,  proclaimed  himself  an  unbeliever,  not- 
withstanding all  the  circumstantiality  and  apparent  con- 
clusiveness of  the  tale.  The  country  was  resounding 
with  lamentations,  the  newspapers  were  full  of  obituary 
notices,  but  the  strong-minded  disbelievers  were  not  to  be 
moved. 

Sir  Roderick  and  his  friends  of  the  Geographical  Society 
determined  to  organize  a  search  expedition,  and  Mr.  E.  D. 
Young  was  requested  to  undertake  the  task.  In  May, 
1867,  all  was  ready  for  the  departure  of  the  Expedition ; 
and  on  the  25th  July,  Mr.  E.  D.  Young,  who  was  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Faulkner,  John  Reid,  and  Patrick  Buckley, 
cast  anchor  at  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi.  A  steel  boat 
named  "  The  Search,"  and  some  smaller  boats,  were  speedily- 
launched,  and  the  party  were  moving  up  the  river.  We 
have  no  space  for  an  account  of  Mr.  Young's  most  inter- 
esting journey,  not  even  for  the  detail  of  that  wonderful 
achievement,  the  carrying  of  the  pieces  of  the  "  Search" 
past  the  Murchison  Cataracts,  and  their  reconstruction 
at  the  top,  without  a  single  piece  missing.  The  sum  and 
substance  of  Mr.  Young's  story  was,  that  first,  quite  unex- 
pectedly, he  came  upon  a  man  near  the  south  end  of 
Lake  Nyassa,  who  had  seen  Livingstone  there,  and  who 
described  him  well,  showing  that  he  had  not  crossed  at 
the  north  end,  as  Musa  had  said,  but,  for  some  reason, 
had  come  round  by  the  south ;  then,  the  chief  Marenga 
not  only  told  him  of  Livingstone's  stay  there,  but  also 

34 


398  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

of  the  return  of  Musa,  after  leaving  him,  without  any 
story  of  his  murder;  also,  at  Mapunda,  they  came  on 
traces  of  the  boy  Wikatani,  and  learned  his  story,  though 
they  did  not  see  himself  The  most  ample  proof  of  the 
falsehood  of  Musa's  story  was  thus  obtained,  and  by  the 
end  of  1867,  Mr.  Young,  after  a  most  active,  gallant,  and 
successful  campaign,  was  approaching  the  shores  of  Eng- 
land.^ No  enterprise  could  have  brought  more  satisfac- 
tory results,  and  all  in  the  incredibly  short  period  of  eight 
months. 

Meanwhile,  Livingstone,  little  thinking  of  all  the  com- 
motion that  the  knave  Musa  had  created,  was  pushing  on 
in  the  direction  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  Though  it  was  not 
true  that  he  had  been  murdered,  it  was  true  that  he  was 
half-starved.  The  want  of  other  food  compelled  him  to 
subsist  to  a  large  extent  on  African  maize,  the  most  taste- 
less and  unsatisfying  of  food.  It  never  produced  the 
feeling  of  sufficiency,  and  it  would  set  him  to  dream  of 
dinners  he  had  once  eaten,  though  dreaming  was  not 
his  habit,  except  when  he  was  ill.  Against  his  will,  the 
thought  of  delicious  feasts  would  come  upon  him,  making 
it  all  the  more  difficult  to  be  cheerful,  with,  probably,  the 
poorest  fare  on  which  life  could  be  in  any  way  maintained, 
To  complete  his  misery,  his  four  goats  were  lost,  so  that 
the  one  comfort  of  his  table — a  little  milk  along  with  his 
maize — was  taken  from  him  when  most  eagerly  sought 
and  valued. 

In  reviewing  the  year  1866,  he  finds  it  less  productive 
of  results  than  he  had  hoped  for :  "  We  now  end  1866. 
It  has  not  been  so  fruitful  or  useful  as  I  intended.  Will 
try  to  do  better  in  1867,  and  be  better — more  gentle  and 
loving;  and  may  the  Almighty,  to  whom  I  commit  my 
way,  bring  my  desires  to  pass,  and  prosper  me  I  Let  all 
the  sins  of  *6Q  be  blotted  out,  for  Jesus*  sake.  May  He 
who  was  full  of  grace  and  truth  impress  his  character  on 

*  Se«  Tkf  Search  for  Livingstone ^  by  E.  D.  Young :  London,  1868. 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  XJJIJL  899 

mine:  grace — eagerness  to  show  favor;  truth — truthful- 
ness, sincerity,  honor — for  his  mercy's  sake." 

Habitually  brave  and  fearless  though  Livingstone  was, 
it  was  not  without  frequent  self-stimulation,  and  acts  of 
faith  in  unseen  truth,  that  the  peace  of  his  mind  was 
maintained.  In  the  midst  of  his  notes  of  progress,  such 
private  thoughts  as  the  following  occur  from  time  to 
time :  "  It  seems  to  have  been  a  mistake  to  imagine  that 
the  Divine  Majesty  on  high  was  too  exalted  to  take  any 
notice  of  our  mean  affairs.  The  great  minds  among  men 
are  remarkable  for  the  attention  they  bestow  on  minutiae. 
An  astronomer  cannot  be  great  unless  his  mind  can  grasp 
an  infinity  of  very  small  things,  each  of  which,  if  unat- 
tended to,  would  throw  his  work  out.  A  great  general 
attends  to  the  smallest  details  of  his  army.  The  Duke  of 
"Wellington's  letters  show  his  constant  attention  to  minute 
details.  And  so  with  the  Supreme  Mind  of  the  universe, 
as  He  is  revealed  to  us  in  his  Son.  *  The  very  hairs  of 
your  head  are  all  numbered.'  '  A  sparrow  cannot  fall  to 
the  ground  without  your  Father/  ^  He  who  dwelleth  in 
the  light  which  no  man  can  approach  unto'  condescends  to 
provide  for  the  minutest  of  our  wants,  directing,  guarding, 
and  assisting  in  each  hour  and  moment,  with  an  infinitely 
more  vigilant  and  excellent  care  than  our  own  utmost 
self-love  can  ever  attain  to.  Y/ith  the  ever-watchful, 
loving  eye  constantly  upon  me,  I  may  surely  follow  my 
bent,  and  go  among  the  heathen  ir^  front,  bearing  the 
message  of  peace  and  good-will.  All  appreciate  the  state- 
ment that  it  is  ofi'ensive  to  our  common  Father  to  sell 
and  kill  his  children.  I  will  therefore  go,  and  may  the 
Almighty  help  me  to  be  faithful  1" 

Writing  to  his  son  Thomas,  1st  February,  1867,  he  com- 
plains again  of  his  terrible  hunger : 

**The  people  have  nothing  to  sell  but  a  little  millet-porridge  and 
mushroonia.  Woe  is  me  I  good  enough  to  produce  fine  dreams  of  the 
lOAst  beef  of  old  England,  but  nothing  else.     I  have  become  very  thin, 


400  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

though  I  was  so  before ;  but  now,  if  you  weighed  me,  you  might  calcu* 
late  very  easily  how  much  you  might  get  for  the  bones.  But — we  got 
a  cow  yesterday,  and  I  am  to  get  milk  to-morrow.  ...  I  grieve  to 
write  it,  poor  poodle  'Chitane'  was  drowned"  [15th  January,  in  the 
Chimbwe] ;  "  he  had  to  cross  a  marsh  a  mile  wide,  and  waist-deep. 
...  I  went  over  first,  and  forgot  to  give  directions  about  the  dog — 
all  were  too  much  engaged  in  keeping  their  balance  to  notice  that  he 
swam  among  them  till  he  died.  He  had  more  spunk  than  a  hundred 
country  dogs — took  charge  of  the  whole  line  of  march,  ran  to  see  the 
first  in  the  line,  then  back  to  the  last,  and  barked  to  haul  him  up; 
then,  when  he  knew  what  hut  I  occupied,  would  not  let  a  countrv  cur 
come  in  sight  of  it,  and  never  stole  himself.  We  have  not  had  any 
difficulties  with  the  people,  made  many  friends,  imparted  a  little  knowl- 
edge sometimes,  and  raised  a  protest  against  slavery  very  widely." 

The  year  1867  was  signalized  by  a  great  calamity,  and 
by  two  important  geographical  feats.  The  calamity  was 
the  loss  of  his  medicine-chest.  It  had  been  intrusted  to 
one  of  his  most  careful  people;  but,  without  authority,  a 
carrier  hired  for  the  day  took  it  and  some  other  things 
to  carry  for  the  proper  bearer,  then  bolted,  and  neither 
carrier  nor  box  could  be  found.  "I  felt,"  says  Living- 
stone, "as  if  I  had  now  received  the  sentence  of  death, 
like  poor  Bishop  Mackenzie."  With  the  medicine-chest 
was  lost  the  power  of  treating  himself  in  fever  with  the 
medicine  that  had  proved  so  effectual.  We  find  him  not 
long  after  in  a  state  of  insensibility,  trying  to  raise  him- 
self from  the  ground,  falling  back  with  all  his  weight,  and 
knocking  his  head  upon  a  box.  The  loss  of  the  medicine- 
box  was  probably  the  beginning  of  the  end ;  his  system 
lost  the  wonderful  power  of  recovery  which  it  had  hitherto 
shown ;  and  other  ailments — in  the  lungs,  the  feet,  and  the 
bowels,  that  might  have  been  kept  under  in  a  more  vigor- 
ous state  of  general  health,  began  hereafter  to  prevail 
against  him. 

The  two  geographical  feats  wero — ^his  first  sight  of  Lake 
Tanganyika,  and  his  discovery  of  Lake  Moero.  In  April 
he  reached  Lake  Liemba,  as  the  lower  part  of  Tanganyika 
was  called.     The  scenery  was  wonderfully  beautiful,  and 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  401 

che  air  of  the  whole  region  remarkably  peaceful.  The 
want  of  medicine  made  an  illness  here  very  severe;  on 
recovering,  he  would  have  gone  down  the  lake,  but  was 
dissuaded,  in  consequence  of  his  hearing  that  a  chief  was 
killing  all  that  came  that  way.  He  therefore  returns  to 
Chitimba's,  and  resolves  to  explore  Lake  Moero,  believing 
that  there  the  question  of  the  watershed  would  be  decided. 
At  Chitimba's,  he  is  detained  upward  of  three  months,  in 
consequence  of  the  disturbed  state  of  the  country.  At 
last  he  gets  the  escort  of  some  Arab  traders,  who  show 
him  much  kindness,  but  again  he  is  prostrated  by  illness, 
and  at  length  he  reaches  Lake  Moero,  8th  November,  1867. 
He  hears  of  another  lake,  called  Bembo  or  Bangweolo,  and 
to  hear  of  it  is  to  resolve  to  see  it.  But  he  is  terribly 
wearied  with  two  years'  traveling  without  having  heard 
from  home,  and  he  thinks  he  must  first  go  to  Ujiji,  for 
letters  and  stores.  Meanwhile,  as  the  traders  are  going  to 
Casembe's,  he  accompanies  them  thither.  Casembe  he 
finds  to  be  a  fierce  chief,  who  rules  his  people  with  great 
tyranny,  cutting  off  their  ears,  and  even  their  hands,  for 
the  most  trivial  offenses.  Persons  so  mutilated,  seen  in 
his  village,  excite  a  feeling  of  horror.  This  chief  was  not 
one  easily  got  at,  but  Livingstone  believed  that  he  gained 
an  influence  with  him,  only  he  could  not  quite  overcome 
his  prejudice  against  him.  The  year  1867  ended  with 
another  se\  ere  attack  of  illness. 

"  The  chief  interest  in  Lake  Moero,"  says  Livingstone,  "  is  that  it 
forms  one  of  a  chain  of  lakes,  connected  by  a  river  some  500  miles  in 
length.  First  of  all,  the  Chambez6  rises  in  the  country  of  Mambw6, 
N.E.  of  Molemba ;  it  then  flows  southwest  and  west,  till  it  reaches  lat. 
11°  s.,  and  long.  29*^  e.,  where  it  forms  Lake  Bemba  or  Bangweolo  j 
emerging  thence,  it  assumes  the  name  of  Luapula,  and  comes  down 
here  to  fall  into  Moero.  On  going  out  of  this  lake  it  is  known  by  the 
name  of  Lualaba,  as  it  flows  n.w.  in  Eua  to  form  another  lake  with 
many  islands,  called  Ureng6  or  Uleng^.  Beyond  this,  information  is 
not  positive  3S  to  whether  it  enters  Lake  Tanganyika,  or  another  lake 
beyond  that.    •    •    •    Since  coming  to  Casembe's,  the  testimony  of 


402  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

natives  and  Arabs  has  been  so  united  and  consistent,  that  I  am  bat  ten 
days  from  Lake  Bemba  or  Bangweolo,  that  I  cannot  doubt  its  accu- 
racy." 

The  detentions  experienced  in  1867  were  long  and 
wearisome,  and  Livingstone  disliked  them  because  he  was 
never  well  when  doing  nothing.  His  light  reading  must 
have  been  pretty  well  exhausted ;  even  Smithes  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible,  which  accompanied  him  in  these  wanderings, 
and  which  we  have  no  doubt  he  read  throughout,  must 
have  got  wearisome  sometimes.  He  occupied  himself  in 
writing  letters,  in  the  hope  that  somehow  or  sometime  he 
might  find  an  opportunity  of  despatching  them.  He  took 
the  rainfall  carefully  during  the  year,  and  lunars  and 
other  observations,  when  the  sky  permitted.  He  had 
intended  to  make  his  observations  more  perfect  on  this 
journey  than  on  any  previous  one,  but  alas  for  his  diffi- 
culties and  disappointments!  A  letter  to  Sir  Thomas 
Maclear  and  Mr.  Mann,  his  assistant,  gives  a  pitiful  ac- 
count of  these :  "  I  came  this  journey  with  a  determination 
to  observe  very  carefully  all  your  hints  as  to  occultations 
and  observations,  east  and  west,  north  and  south,  but  I 
have  been  so  worried  by  lazy,  deceitful  Sepoys,  and 
thievish  Johanna  men,  and  indififerent  instruments,  that  I 
fear  the  results  are  very  poor."  He  goes  on  to  say  that 
some  of  his  instruments  were  defective,  and  others  went 
out  of  order,  and  that  his  time-taker,  one  of  his  people, 
had  no  conscience,  and  could  not  be  t/usted.  The  records 
of  his  observations,  notwithstanding,  indicate  much  care 
and  pains.  In  April,  he  had  been  very  unwell,  taking  fits 
of  total  insensibility,  but  as  he  had  not  said  anything  of 
this  to  his  people  at  home,  it  was  to  be  kept  a  secret. 

His  Journal  for  1867  ends  with  a  statement  of  the 
poverty  of  his  food,  and  the  weakness  to  which  he  was 
reduced.  He  had  hardly  anything  to  eat  but  the  coarsest 
grain  of  the  country,  and  no  tea,  coffee,  or  sugar.  An  Arab 
trader,   Mohamad    Bogharib,  who  arrived  at   Casembe's 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  403 

about  the  same  time,  presented  him  with  a  meal  of  ver- 
micelli, oil,  and  honey,  and  had  some  coffee  and  sugar; 
Livingstone  had  had  none  since  he  left  Nyassa. 

The  Journal  for  1868  begins  with  a  prayer  that  if  he 
should  die  that  year,  he  might  be  prepared  for  it.  The 
year  was  spent  in  the  same  region,  and  was  signalized  by 
the  discovery  of  Lake  Bemba,  or,  as  it  may  more  properly 
be  called,  Lake  Bangweolo.  Earl}^  in  the  year  he  heard 
accounts  of  what  interested  him  greatly — certain  under- 
ground houses  in  Rua,  ranging  along  a  mountain  side  for 
twenty  miles.  In  some  cases  the  doorways  were  level 
with  the  country  adjacent ;  in  others,  ladders  were  used  to 
climb  up  to  them ;  inside  they  were  said  to  be  very  large, 
and  not  the  work  of  men,  but  of  God.  He  became  eagerly 
desirous  to  visit  these  mysterious  dwellings. 

Circumstances  turning  out  more  favorable  to  his  going 
to  Lake  Bangweolo,  Dr.  Livingstone  put  off"  his  journey  to 
Ujiji,  on  which  his  men  had  been  counting,  and  much 
against  the  advice  of  Mohamad,  his  trader  friend  and 
companion,  determined  first  to  see  the  lake  of  which 
he  had  heard  so  much.  The  consequence  was  a  rebellion 
among  his  men.  With  the  exception  of  five,  they  refused 
to  go  with  him.  They  had  been  considerably  demoralized 
by  contact  with  the  Arab  trader  and  his  slave-gang.  Dr. 
Livingstone  took  this  rebellion  with  wonderful  placidity, 
for  in  his  own  mind  he  could  not  greatly  blame  them.  It 
was  no  wonder  they  were  tired  of  the  everlasting  tramp- 
ing, for  he  was  sick  of  it  himself.  He  reaped  the  fruit  of 
his  mildness  by  the  men  coming  back  to  him,  on  his 
return  from  the  lake,  and  offering  their  services.  It 
cannot  be  said  of  him  that  he  was  not  disposed  to  make 
any  allowance  for  human  weakness.  When  recording  a 
fault,  and  how  he  dealt  with  it,  he  often  adds,  "  conscious- 
ness of  my  own  defects  makes  me  lenient."  "  I  also  have 
my  weaknesses." 

The  way  to  the  lake  was  marked  by  fresh  and  lament- 


404  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

able  tokens  of  the  sufferings  of  slaves.  "24:th  June.—^ 
Six  men-slaves  were  singing  as  if  they  did  not  feel  the 
weight  and  degradation  of  the  slave-sticks.  I  asked  the 
cause  of  their  mirth,  and  was  told  that  they  rejoiced  at 
the  idea  of  '  coming  back  after  death,  and  haunting  and 
killing  those  who  had  sold  them.'  Some  of  the  words 
I  had  to  inquire  about ;  for  instance,  the  meaning  of  the 
words,  '  to  haunt  and  kill  by  spirit  power ;'  then  it  was, 
'  Oh,  you  sent  me  off  to  Manga  (sea-coast),  but  the  yoke 
is  off  when  I  die,  and  back  I  shall  come  to  haunt  and  to 
kill  you.'  Then  all  joined  in  the  chorus,  which  was  the 
name  of  each  vendor.  It  told  not  of  fun,  but  of  the 
bitterness  and  tears  of  such  as  were  oppressed;  and  on 
the  side  of  the  oppressors  there  was  power.  There  be 
higher  than  they  1" 

His  discovery  of  Lake  Bangweolo  is  recorded  as  quietly 
as  if  it  had  been  a  mill-pond :  "  On  the  18th  July,  I 
walked  a  little  way  out,  and  saw  the  shores  of  the  lake 
for  the  first  time,  thankful  that  I  had  come  safely  hither." 
The  lake  had  several  inhabited  islands,  which  Dr.  Living- 
stone visited,  to  the  great  wonder  of  the  natives,  who 
crowded  around  him  in  multitudes,  never  having  seen 
such  a  curiosity  as  a  white  man  before.  In  the  middle 
of  the  lake  the  canoe-men  whom  he  had  hired  to  carry 
him  across  refused  to  proceed  further,  under  the  influence 
of  some  fear,  real  or  pretended,  and  he  was  obliged  to 
submit.  But  the  most  interesting,  though  not  the  most 
pleasant,  thing  about  the  lake,  was  the  ooze  or  sponge 
which  occurred  frequently  on  its  banks.  The  spongy 
places  were  slightly  depressed  valleys,  without  trees  or 
bushes,  with  grass  a  foot  or  fifteen  inches  high ;  they 
were  usually  from  two  to  ten  miles  long,  and  from  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  to  a  mile  broad.  In  the  course  of  thirty 
geographical  miles,  he  crossed  twenty-nine,  and  that,  too, 
at  the  end  of  the  fourth  month  of  the  dry  season.  It  was 
necessary  for  him  to  strip  the  lower  part  of  his  person 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  405 

before  fording  them,  and  then  the  leeches  pounced  on 
him,  and  in  a  moment  had  secured  such  a  grip,  that  even 
twisting  them  round  the  fingers  failed  to  tear  them  off. 

It  was  Dr.  Livingstone's  impression  at  this  time  that 
in  discovering  Lake  Bangweolo,  with  the  sponges  that  fed 
it,  he  had  made  another  discovery — that  these  marshy 
places  might  be  the  real  sources  of  the  three  great  rivers, 
the  Nile,  the  Congo,  and  the  Zambesi.  A  link,  however, 
was  yet  wanting  to  prove  his  theory.  It  had  yet  to 
be  shown  that  the  waters  that  flowed  from  Lake  Bang- 
weolo into  Lake  Moero,  and  thence  northward  by  the 
river  Lualaba,  were  connected  with  the  Nile  system.  Dr. 
Livingstone  was  strongly  inclined  to  believe  that  this 
connection  existed ;  but  toward  the  close  of  his  life  he  had 
more  doubts  of  it,  although  it  was  left  to  others  to  estab- 
lish conclusively  that  the  Lualaba  was  the  Congo,  and 
sent  no  branch  to  the  Nile. 

On  leaving  Lake  Bangweolo,  detention  occurred  again 
as  it  had  occurred  before.  The  country  was  very  disturbed 
and  ver^T-  miserable,  and  Dr.  Livingstone  was  in  great 
straits  and  want.  Yet  with  a  grim  humor  he  tells  how, 
when  lying  in  an  open  shed,  with  all  his  men  around 
him,  he  dreamed  of  having  apartments  at  Mivart's  Hotel. 
It  was  after  much  delay  that  he  found  himself  at  last, 
under  the  escort  of  a  slave-party,  on  the  way  to  Ujiji. 
Mr.  Waller  has  graphically  described  the  situation.  "At 
last  he  makes  a  start  on  the  11th  of  December,  1868,  with 
the  Arabs,  who  are  bound  eastward  for  Ujiji.  It  is  a 
motley  group,  composed  of  Mohamad  and  his  friends,  a 
gang  of  Unyamwezi  hangers-on,  and  strings  of  wretched 
slaves  yoked  together  in  their  heavy  slave-sticks.  Some 
carry  ivory,  others  copper,  or  food  for  the  march,  while 
hope  and  fear,  misery  and  villainy,  may  be  read  off  on 
the  various  faces  that  pass  in  line  out  of  this  country,  like 
a  serpent  dragging  its  accursed  folds  away  from  the  victiiA 
it  has  paralyzed  with  its  fangs." 


406  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

lN"ew  Year's  Day,  18o9,  found  Livingstone  laboring  under 

a  worse  attack  of  illness  than  any  he  had  ever  had  before. 

For  ten  weeks   to   come   his   situation  was   as   painful   as 

can  be  conceived.     A  continual  cough,  night  and  day,  the 

most  distressing  weakness,  inability  to  walk,  yet  the  necessity 

of  moving   on,   or   rather   of   being  moved   on,    in   a   kind 

of   litter   arranged   by   Mohamad    Bogharib, — ^where,    with 

his    face   poorly   protected    from   the    sun,    he    was    jolted 

up    and    down    and    sideways,    without   medicine    or    food 

for    an    invalid, — made    the    situation    sufficiently    trying. 

His  prayer  was  that  he  might  hold  out  to  Ujiji,  where 

he  expected  to  find  medicines  and  stores,  with  the  rest  and 

shelter  so  necessary  in  his  circumstances.     So  ill  was  he, 

that    he    lost    count    of    the    days    of    the    week    and    the 

month.    "  I  saw  myself  lying  dead  in  the  way  to  Ujiji,  and 

all  the  letters  I  expected  there — ^useless.     When  I  think  of 

my  children,  the  lines  ring  through  my  head  perpetually; 

"  *  I  shall  look  into  your  faces, 
And  listen  to  what  you  say; 
And  be  often  very  near  you 

When  you  think  I'm  far  away.*  ** 

On  the  26th  February,  1869,  he  embarked  in  a  canoe 
on  Tanganyika,  and  on  the  14th  March  he  reached  the 
longed-for  Ujiji,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake.  To  com- 
plete his  trial,  he  found  that  the  goods  he  expected  had  been 
made  away  with  in  every  direction.  A  few  fragments  were 
about  all  he  could  find.  Medicines,  wine,  and  cheese  had 
been  left  at  Unyanyembe,  thirteen  days  distant.  A  war  wa« 
raging  on  the  way,  so  that  they  could  not  be  sent  for  till  the 
communications  were  restored. 

To  obviate  as  far  as  possible  the  recurrence  of  such  a 
disaster  to  a  new  store  of  goods  which  he  was  now  asking 
Dr.  Kirk  to  send  him,  Livingstone  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
Sultan  of  Zanzibar,  20th  April,  1869,  in  which  he  frankly 
and  cordially  acknowledged  the  benefit  he  had  derived 
from  the  letter  of  recommendation  his  Highness  had 
given  him,  and  the  great  kindness  of  the  Arabs,  especially 


FROM  ZANZIBAR  TO  UJIJL  407 

Mohamad  Bogharib,  who  had  certainly  saved  his  life. 
Then  he  complains  of  the  robbery  of  his  goods,  chiefly  by 
one  Musa  bin  Salim,  one  of  the  people  of  the  Governor  of 
Unyanyembe,  who  had  bought  ivory  with  the  price,  and 
another  man  who  had  bought  a  wife.  Livingstone  does 
not  expect  his  cloth  and  beads  to  be  brought  back,  or  the 
price  of  the  wife  and  ivory  returned,  but  he  says : 

"I  beg  the  assistance  of  your  authority  to  prevent  a 
fresh  stock  of  goods,  for  which  I  now  send  to  Zanzibar, 
being  plundered  in  the  same  way.  Had  it  been  the  loss 
of  ten  or  twelve  pieces  of  cloth  only,  I  should  not  have 
presumed  to  trouble  your  Highness  about  the  loss;  but 
62  pieces  or  gorahs  out  of  80,  besides  beads,  is  like  cutting 
a  man's  throat.  If  one  or  two  guards  of  good  character 
could  be  sent  by  you,  no  one  would  plunder  the  pagasi 
next  time. 

"  I  wish  also  to  hire  twelve  or  fifteen  good  freemen  to 
act  as  canoe-men  or  porters,  or  in  any  other  capacity  that 
may  be  required.  I  shall  be  greatly  obliged  if  you  appoint 
one  of  your  gentlemen  who  knows  the  country  to  select 
that  number,  and  give  them  and  their  headman  a  charge 
as  to  their  behavior.  If  they  know  that  you  wish  them  to 
behave  well  it  will  have  great  effect.  I  wish  to  go  down 
Tanganyika,  through  Luanda  and  Chowambe,  and  pass 
the  river  Karagwe,  which  falls  into  Lake  Chowamba 
Then  come  back  to  Ujiji,  visit  Manyuema  and  Rua,  and 
then  return  to  Zanzibar,  when  I  hope  to  see  your  High- 
ness in  the  enjoyment  of  health  and  happiness." 

Livingstone  showed  only  his  usual  foresight  in  taking 
these  precautions  for  the  protection  of  his  next  cargo  of 
goods.  In  stating  so  plainly  his  intended  route,  his  pur- 
pose was  doubtless  to  prevent  carelessness  in  executing 
his  orders,  such  as  might  have  arisen  had  it  been  deemed 
uncertain  where  he  was  going,  and  whether  or  not  he 
meant  to  return  by  Zanzibar. 

Of  letters  during  the  latter  part  of  this  period  very  fe\r 
aeem  to  have  reached  their  destination.    A  short  letter  to 


408  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Dr.  Moffat,  bearing  date  "  Near  Lake  Moero,  March,  1868,'' 
dwells  dolefully  on  his  inability  to  reach  Lake  Bemba  in 
consequence  of  the  flooded  state  of  the  country,  and  then 
his  detention  through  the  strifes  of  the  Arabs  and  the 
natives.  The  letter,  however,  is  more  occupied  with  re- 
viewing the  past  than  narrating  the  present.  In  writing 
to  Dr.  Moffat,  he  enters  more  minutely  than  he  would 
have  done  with  a  less  intimate  and  sympathetic  friend 
into  the  difficulties  of  his  lot — difficulties  that  had  been 
increased  by  some  from  whom  he  might  have  expected 
other  things.  He  had  once  seen  a  map  displayed  in  the 
rooms  of  the  Geographical  Society,  substantially  his  own, 
but  with  another  name  in  conspicuous  letters.  On  the 
Zambesi  he  had  had  difficulties,  little  suspected,  of  which 
in  the  meantime  he  would  say  nothing  to  the  public.  A 
letter  to  his  daughter  Agnes,  after  he  had  gone  to  Bang- 
weolo,  dwells  also  much  on  his  past  difficulties — as  if  he 
felt  that  the  slow  progress  he  was  making  at  the  moment 
needed  explanation  or  apology.  Amid  such  topics,  almost 
involuntary  touches  of  the  old  humor  occur :  "  I  broke 
my  teeth  tearing  at  maize  and  other  hard  food,  and  they 
are  coming  out.  One  front  tooth  is  out,  and  I  have  such 
an  awful  mouth.  If  you  expect  a  kiss  from  me,  you  must 
take  it  through  a  speaking-trumpet."  In  one  respect, 
amid  all  his  trials,  his  heart  seems  to  become  more  tender 
than  ever — in  affection  for  his  children,  and  wise  and 
considerate  advice  for  their  guidance.  In  his  letter  to 
Agnes,  he  adverts  with  some  regret  to  a  chance  he  lost  of 
saying  a  word  for  his  family  when  Lord  Palmerston  sent 
Mr.  Hayward,  Q.C.,  to  ask  him  what  he  could  do  to  serve 
him.  "  It  never  occurred  to  me  that  he  meant  anything 
for  me  or  my  children  till  I  was  out  here.  I  thought  only 
of  my  work  in  Africa,  and  answered  accordingly."  It  was 
only  the  fear  that  his  family  would  be  in  want  that  occa- 
sioned this  momentary  regret  at  his  disinterested  answer 
to  liord  Palmerston. 


MANYUEMA.  409 


CHAPTER   XX. 

MANYUEMA. 
A.D.  1869-1871. 

He  sets  out  to  explore  Manyuemu  and  the  river  Lualaba — Loss  of  forty-two 
letters — His  feebleness  through  illness — He  arrives  at  Bambarre — Becomes 
acquainted  with  the  soko  or  gorilla — Reaches  the  Luama  River — Magnifi- 
cence of  the  country — Repulsiveness  of  the  people — Cannot  get  a  canoe  to 
explore  the  Lualaba — Has  to  return  to  Bambarr6 — Letter  to  Thomas,  and 
retrospect  of  his  life — Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  and  Mr.  Mann — Miss 
Tinne — He  is  worse  in  health  than  ever,  yet  resolves  to  add  to  his  pro- 
gramme and  go  round  Lake  Bangweolo — Letter  to  Agnes — Review  of  the 
past — He  sets  out  anew  in  a  more  northerly  direction — Overpowered  by 
constant  wet — Reaches  Nyangwe — Long  detention — Letter  to  his  brother 
John — Sense  of  difficulties  and  troubles — Nobility  of  his  spirit — He  sets  off 
with  only  three  attendants  for  the  Lualaba — Suspicions  of  the  natives — 
Influence  of  Arab  traders — Frightful  difficulties  of  the  way — Lamed  by  foot- 
sores — Has  to  return  to  Bambarr^ — Long  and  wearisome  detention — Occu- 
pations— Meditations  and  reveries — Death  no  terror — Unparalleled  position 
and  trials — He  reads  his  Bible  from  beginning  to  end  four  times — Letter  to 
Sir  Thomas  Maclear — To  Agnes — His  delight  at  her  sentiments  about  his 
coming  home — Account  of  the  soko — Grief  to  hear  of  death  of  Lady  Mur- 
chison — Wretched  character  of  men  sent  from  Zanzibar — At  last  sets  out 
with  Mohamad — Difficulties — Slave-trade  most  horrible — Cannot  get  canoes 
for  Lualaba — Long  waiting — New  plan — Frustrated  by  horrible  massacre  on 
banks  of  Lualaba — Frightful  scene — He  must  return  to  Ujiji — New  illness — 
Perils  of  journey  to  Ujiji — Life  three  times  endangered  in  one  day — Reaches 
Ujiji — Shereef  has  sold  off  his  goods — He  is  almost  In  despair — Meets  Henry 
M.  Stanley  and  is  relieved — His  contributions  to  Natural  Science  during 
last  journeys — Professor  Owen  in  the  Quarterly  Review. 

After  resting  for  a  few  weeks  at  Ujiji,  Dr.  Livingstone 
set  out,  12th  July,  1869,  to  explore  the  Manyuema  country. 
Ujiji  was  not  a  place  favorable  for  making  arrangements ; 
it  was  the  resort  of  the  worst  scum  of  Arab  traders.  Even 
to  send  his  letters  to  the  coast  was  a  difficult  undertaking, 
for  the  bearers  were  afraid  he  would  expose  their  doings. 
35 


410  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

On  one  day  he  despatched  no  fewer  than  forty-two — 
enough,  no  doubt,  to  form  a  large  volume ;  none  of  these 
ever  arrived  at  Zanzibar,  so  that  they  must  have  been 
purposely  destroyed.  The  slave-traders  of  Urungu  and 
Itawa,  where  he  had  been,  were  gentlemen  compared  with 
those  of  Ujiji,  who  resembled  the  Kilwa  and  Portuguese, 
and  with  whom  trading  was  simply  a  system  of  murder. 
Here  lay  the  cause  of  Livingstone's  unexampled  difficul- 
ties at  this  period  of  his  life ;  he  was  dependent  on  men 
who  were  not  only  knaves  of  the  first  magnitude,  but  who 
had  a  special  animosity  against  him,  and  a  special  motive 
to  deceive,  rob,  and  obstruct  him  in  every  possible  way. 

After  considerable  deliberation  he  decided  to  go  to 
Manyuema,  in  order  to  examine  the  river  Lualaba,  and 
determine  the  direction  of  its  flow.  This  would  settle  the 
question  of  the  watershed,  and  in  four  or  G^ye  months,  if 
he  should  get  guides  and  canoes,  his  work  would  be  done. 
On  setting  out  from  Ujiji  he  first  crossed  the  lake,  and 
then  proceeded  inland  on  foot.  He  was  still  weak  from 
illness,  and  his  lungs  were  so  feeble  that  to  walk  up-hill 
made  him  pant.  He  became  stronger,  however,  as  he 
went  on,  refreshed  doubtless  by  the  interesting  country 
through  which  he  passed,  and  the  aspect  of  the  people, 
who  were  very  different  from  the  tribes  on  the  coast. 

On  the  21st  September  he  arrived  at  Bambarre,  in  Man- 
yuema, the  village  of  the  Chief  Moenekuss.  He  found  the 
people  in  a  state  of  great  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  with  nothing  to  trust  to  but  charms  and  idols, — 
both  being  bits  of  wood.  He  made  the  acquaintance  of 
the  soke  or  gorilla,  not  a  very  social  animal,  for  it  always 
tries  to  bite  off  the  ends  of  its  captor's  fingers  and  toes. 
Neither  is  it  particularly  intellectual,  for  its  nest  shows  no 
more  contrivance  than  that  of  a  cushat  dove.  The  curi- 
osity of  the  people  was  very  great,  and  sometimes  it  took 
an  interesting  direction.  "  Do  people  die  with  you  ?" 
asked  two  intelligent  young  men.     "  Have  you  no  charm 


MANYUEMA.  411 

against  death  ?  Where  do  people  go  after  death  ?"  Liv- 
ingstone spoke  to  them  of  the  great  Father,  and  of  their 
prayers  to  Him  who  hears  the  cry  of  his  children;  and 
they  thought  this  to  be  natural. 

He  rested  at  Bambarre  till  the  1st  of  November,  and 
then  went  westward  till  he  reached  the  Luamo  River, 
and  was  within  ten  miles  of  its  confluence  with  the 
Lualaba.  He  found  the  country  surpassingly  beautiful : 
**  Palms  crown  the  highest  heights  of  the  mountains,  and 
their  gracefully-bent  fronds  wave  beautifully  in  the  wind. 
Climbers  of  cable  size  in  great  numbers  are  hung  among 
the  gigantic  trees;  many  unknown  wild  fruits  abound, 
some  the  size  of  a  child's  head,  and  strange  birds  and 
monkeys  are  everywhere.  The  soil  is  excessively  rich, 
and  the  people,  though  isolated  by  old  feuds  that  are 
never  settled,  cultivate  largely." 

The  country  was  very  populous,  and  Livingstone  so 
excited  the  curiosity  of  the  people  that  he  could  hardly 
get  quit  of  the  crowds.  It  was  not  so  uninteresting  to  be 
stared  at  by  the  women,  but  he  was  wearied  with  the 
ugliness  of  the  men.  Palm-toddy  did  not  inspire  them 
with  any  social  qualities,  but  made  them  low  and  dis- 
agreeable. They  had  no  friendly  feeling  for  him,  and 
could  not  be  inspired  with  any.  They  thought  that  he 
and  his  people  were  like  the  Arab  traders,  and  they  would 
not  do  anything  for  them.  It  was  impossible  to  procure 
a  canoe  for  navigating  the  Lualaba,  so  that  there  was 
nothing  for  it  but  to  return  to  Bambarre,  which  was 
reached  on  the  19th  December,  1869. 

A  long  letter  to  his  son  Thomas  (Town  of  Moenekuss, 
Manyuema  Country,  24th  September,  1869)  gives  a 
retrospect  of  this  period,  and  indeed,  in  a  sense,  of  his 
life: 

"My  deae  Tom, — I  begin  a  letter,  though  I  have  no  prospect  of 
being  able  to  send  it  off  for  many  months  to  come.  It  is  to  have 
something  m  readiness  when  the  hurry  usual  in  preparing  a  mail  does 


412  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

arrive.  I  am  in  the  Manyuema  Country,  about  150  miles  west  of 
TJjiji,  and  at  the  town  of  Moenekoos  or  Moenekuss,  a  principal  chief 
among  the  reputed  cannibals.  His  name  means  '  Lord  of  the  light- 
gray  parrot  with  a  red  tail,'  which  abounds  here,  and  he  points  away 
still  further  west  to  the  country  of  the  real  cannibals.  His  people 
laugh,  and  say,  '  Yes,  we  eat  the  flesh  of  men,'  and  should  they  see  the 
inquirer  to  be  credulous,  enter  into  particulars.  A  black  stufif  smeared 
on  the  cheeks  is  the  sign  of  mourning,  and  they  told  one  of  my  people 
who  believes  all  they  say  that  it  is  animal  charcoal  made  of  the  bones 
of  the  relatives  they  have  eaten.  They  showed  him  the  skull  of  one 
recently  devoured,  and  he  pointed  it  out  to  me  in  triumph.  It  was  the 
skull  of  a  gorilla,  here  called  'soko,'  and  this  they  do  eat.  They  put 
a  bunch  of  bananas  in  his  way,  and  hide  till  he  comes  to  take  them, 
and  spear  him.  Many  of  the  Arabs  believe  firmly  in  the  cannibal 
propensity  of  the  Manyuema.  Others  who  have  lived  long  among 
them,  and  are  themselves  three-fourths  African  blood,  deny  it.  I 
suspect  that  this  idea  must  go  into  oblivion  with  those  of  people  who 
have  no  knowledge  of  fire,  of  the  Supreme  Being,  or  of  language. 
The  country  abounds  in  food, — goats,  sheep,  fowls,  buflfaloes,  and 
elephants :  maize,  holcuserghum,  cassaba,  sweet  potatoes,  and  other 
farinaceous  eatables,  and  with  ground-nuts,  palm-oil,  palms,  and  other 
fat-yielding  nuts,  bananas,  plantains,  sugar-cane  in  great  plenty. 
So  there  is  little  inducement  to  eat  men,  but  I  wait  for  further  evi- 
dence. 

"  Not  knowing  how  your  head  has  fared,  I  sometimes  feel  greatly 
distressed  about  you,  and  if  I  could  be  of  any  use  I  would  leave  my 
work  unfinished  to  aid  you.  But  you  will  have  every  medical  assistance 
that  can  be  rendered,  and  I  cease  not  to  beg  the  Lord  who  healeth  hia 
people  to  be  gracious  to  your  infirmity. 

"  The  object  of  my  Expedition  is  the  discovery  of  the  sources  of 
the  Nile.  Had  I  known  all  the  hardships,  toil,  and  time  involved,  I 
would  of  been  of  the  mind  of  St.  Mungo,  of  Glasgow,  of  whom  the 
song  says  that  he  let  the  Molendinar  Burn  'rin  by,'  when  he  could  get 
something  stronger.  I  would  have  let  the  sources  *  rin  by'  to  Egypt, 
and  never  been  made  'drumly'  by  my  plashing  through  them.  But 
I  shall  make  this  country  and  people  better  known.  'This,'  Professor 
Owen  said  to  me,  'is  the  first  step;  the  rest  will  in  due  time  follow.* 
By  different  agencies  the  Great  Ruler  is  bringing  all  things  into  a 
focus.  Jesus  is  gathering  all  things  unto  Himself,  and  He  is  daily 
becoming  more  and  more  the  centre  of  the  world's  hopes  and  of  the 
world's  fears.  War  brought  freedom  to  4,000,000  of  the  most  hope- 
less and  helpless  slaves.  The  world  never  saw  such  fiendishness  as 
that  with  which  the  Southern  slaveocracy  clung  to  slavery.     No  power 


MANYUEMA,  413 

in  this  world  or  the  next  would  ever  make  them  relax  their  iron  grasp. 
The  lie  had  entered  into  their  soul.  Their  cotton  was  King.  With  it 
they  would  force  England  and  France  to  make  them  independent, 
because  without  it  the  English  and  French  must  starve.  Instead  of 
being  made  a  nation,  they  made  a  nation  of  the  North.  War  has 
elevated  and  purified  the  Yankees,  and  now  they  have  the  gigantic 
task  laid  at  their  doors  to  elevate  and  purify  4,000,0CX)  of  slaves.  I 
earnestly  hope  that  the  Northerners  may  not  be  found  wanting  in 
their  portion  of  the  superhuman  work.  The  day  for  Africa  is  yet  to 
come.  Possibly  the  freed  men  may  be  an  agency  in  elevating  their 
fatherland. 

"  England  is  in  the  rear.  This  affair  in  Jamaica  brought  out  the 
fact  of  a  large  infusion  of  bogiephobia  in  the  English.  Frightened  in 
early  years  by  their  mothers  with  '  Bogie  Blackman,'  they  were 
terrified  out  of  their  wits  by  a  riot,  and  the  sensation  writers,  who  act 
the  part  of  the  ^  dreadful  boys'  who  frightened  aunts,  yelled  out  that 
emancipation  was  a  mistake.  ^  The  Jamaica  negroes  were  as  savage  as 
when  they  left  Africa.'  They  might  have  put  it  much  stronger  by 
saying,  as  the  rabble  that  attended  Tom  Sayers's  funeral,  or  that  collects 
at  every  execution  at  Newgate.  But  our  golden  age  is  not  in  the  past. 
It  is  in  the  future — in  the  good  time  coming  yet  for  Africa  and  for  the 
world. 

"The  task  I  undertook  was  to  examine  the  watershed  of  South 
Central  Africa.  This  was  the  way  Sir  Eoderick  put  it,  and  though 
he  mentioned  it  as  the  wish  of  the  Geographical  Council,  I  suspect 
it  was  his  own  idea ;  for  two  members  of  the  Society  wrote  out  '  in- 
structions' for  me,  and  the  watershed  was  not  mentioned.  But 
scientific  words  were  used  which  the  writers  evidently  did  not  under- 
stand. 

"  The  examination  of  the  watershed  contained  the  true  scientific 
mode  of  procedure,  and  Sir  Roderick  said  to  me :  'You  will  be  the 
discoverer  of  the  sources  of  the  Nile.'  I  shaped  my  course  for  a  path 
across  the  north  end  of  Lake  Nyassa,  but  to  avoid  the  certainty 
of  seeing  all  my  attendants  bolting  at  the  first  sight  of  the  wild  tribes 
there,  the  Nindi,  I  changed  off  to  go  round  the  south  end,  and  if  not, 
cross  the  middle.  What  I  feared  for  the  north  took  place  in  the 
south  when  the  Johanna  men  heard  of  the  Mazitu,  though  we  were 
150  miles  from  the  marauders,  and  I  offered  to  go  due  west  till 
past  their  beat.  They  were  terrified,  and  ran  away  as  soon  as  they 
saw  my  face  turned  west.  I  got  carriers  from  village  to  village,  and 
got  on  nicely  with  people  who  had  never  engaged  in  the  slave-trade ; 
but  it  was  slow  work.  I  came  very  near  to  the  Mazitu  three  times, 
but  obtained  information  in  time  to  avoid  them.    Once  we  were  taken 


414  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

for  Mazitu  ourselves,  and  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  excited  savages. 
They  produced  a  state  of  confusion  and  terror,  and  men  fled  hither 
and  thither  with  the  fear  of  death  on  them.  Casembe  would  not  let 
me  go  into  his  southern  district  till  he  had  sent  men  to  see  that  the 
Mazitu,  or,  as  they  are  called  in  Lunda,  the  Watuta,  had  left.  Where 
they  had  been  all  the  food  was  swept  off,  and  we  suffered  cruel  hunger. 
We  had  goods  to  buy  with,  but  the  people  had  nothing  to  sell,  and 
were  living  on  herbs  and  mushrooms.  I  had  to  feel  every  step  of  the 
way,  and  generally  was  groping  in  the  dark.  No  one  knew  anything 
beyond  his  own  district,  and  who  cared  where  the  rivers  ran? 
Casembe  said,  when  I  was  going  to  Lake  Bangweolo:  'One  piece  of 
water  was  just  like  another  (it  is  the  Bangweolo  water),  but  as  your 
chief  desired  you  to  visit  that  one,  go  to  it.  If  you  see  a  traveling  party 
going  north,  join  it.  If  not,  come  back  to  me  and  I  will  send  you 
safely  along  my  path  by  Moero ;'  and  gave  me  a  man's  load  of  a  fish 
like  whitebait.  I  gradually  gained  more  light  on  the  country,  and 
slowly  and  surely  saw  the  problem  of  the  fountains  of  the  Nile  de- 
veloping before  my  eyes.  The  vast  volume  of  water  draining  away  to 
the  north  made  me  conjecture  that  I  had  been  working  at  the  sources 
of  the  Congo  too.  My  present  trip  to  Manyuema  proves  that  all  goes 
to  the  river  of  Egypt.  In  fact,  the  head-waters  of  the  Nile  are 
gathered  into  two  or  three  arms,  very  much  as  was  depicted  by  Ptolemy 
in  the  second  century  of  our  era.  What  we  moderns  can  claim  is  re- 
discovery of  what  had  fallen  into  oblivion,  like  the  circumnavigation 
of  Africa  by  the  Phoenican  admiral  of  one  of  the  Pharaohs,  b.c.  600. 
He  was  not  believed,  because  *  he  had  the  sun  on  his  right  hand  in 
going  round  from  east  to  west.'  Though  to  us  this  stamps  his  tale  as 
genuine,  Ptolemy  was  not  believed,  because  his  sources  were  between 
10  and  12  north  latitude,  and  collected  into  two  or  three  great  head 
branches.    In  my  opinion,  his  informant  must  have  visited  them. 

"  I  cared  nothing  for  money,  and  contemplated  spending  my 
life  as  a  hard-working,  poor  missionary.  By  going  into  the  country 
beyond  Kuruman  we  pleased  the  Directors,  but  the  praises  they 
bestowed  excited  envy.  Mamma  and  you  all  had  hard  times.  The 
missionaries  at  Kuruman,  and  south  of  it,  had  comfortable  houses  and 
gardens.  They  could  raise  wheat,  pumpkins,  maize,  at  very  small  ex- 
pense, and  their  gardens  yielded  besides  apples,  pears,  apricots,  peaches, 
quinces,  oranges,  grapes,  almonds,  walnuts,  and  all  vegetables,  for 
little  more  than  the  trouble  of  watering.  A  series  or  droughts  com- 
pelled us  to  send  for  nearly  all  our  food  270  miles  off.  Instead  of  help 
we  had  to  pay  the  uttermost  farthing  for  everything,  and  got  bitter 
envy  besides.  Many  have  thought  that  I  was  inflated  by  the  praises  I 
had  lavished  upon  me,  but  I  made  it  a  rule  never  to  read  anything  of 


MANYUEMA.  415 

praise.  I  am  thankful  that  a  kind  Providence  has  enabled  me  to  do 
what  will  reflect  honor  on  my  children,  and  show  myself  a  stout- 
hearted servant  of  Him  from  whom  comes  every  gift.  None  of  you 
must  become  mean,  craven-hearted,  untruthful,  or  dishonest,  for  if  you 
do,  you  don't  inherit  it  from  me.  I  hope  that  you  have  selected  a 
profession  that  suits  your  taste.  It  will  make  you  hold  up  your  head 
among  men,  and  is  your  most  serious  duty.  I  shall  not  live  long,  and 
it  would  not  be  well  to  rely  on  my  influence.  I  could  help  you  a 
little  while  living,  but  have  little  else  but  what  people  call  a  great 
name  to  bequeath  afterward.  I  am  nearly  toothless,  and  in  my 
second  childhood.  The  green  maize  was  in  one  part  the  only  food  we 
could  get  with  any  taste.  I  ate  the  hard  fare,  and  was  once  horrified 
by  finding  most  of  my  teeth  loose.  They  never  fastened  again,  and 
generally  became  so  loose  as  to  cause  pain.  T  had  to  extract  them, 
and  did  so  by  putting  on  a  strong  thread  with  what  sailors  call  a  clove* 
hitch,  tie  the  other  end  to  a  stump  above  or  below,  as  the  tooth  was 
upper  or  lower,  strike  the  thread  with  a  heavy  pistol  or  stick,  and  the 
tooth  dangled  at  the  stump,  and  no  pain  was  felt.  Two  upper  front 
teeth  are  thus  out,  and  so  many  more,  I  shall  need  a  whole  set  of 
artificials.  I  may  here  add  that  the  Manyuema  stole  the  bodies  of 
slaves  which  were  buried,  till  a  threat  was  used.  They  said  the  hyenas 
had  exhumed  the  dead,  but  a  slave  was  cast  out  by  Banyamwezi,  and 
neither  hyenas  nor  men  touched  it  for  seven  days.  The  threat  was 
effectual.  I  think  that  they  are  cannibals,  but  not  ostentatiously  so. 
The  disgust  expressed  by  na>*  j  traders  has  made  them  ashamed. 
Women  never  partook  of  huiL.an  flesh.  Eating  sokos  or  gorillas  must 
have  been  a  step  in  the  process  of  teaching  them  to  eat  men.  The 
sight  of  a  soko  nauseates  me.  He  is  so  hideously  ugly,  1  can  conceive 
no  other  use  for  him  than  sitting  for  a  portrait  of  Satan.  I  have  lost 
many  months  by  rains,  refusal  of  my  attendants  to  go  into  a  canoe, 
and  irritable  eating  ulcers  on  my  feet  from  wading  in  mud  instead  of 
sailing.  They  are  frightfully  common,  and  often  kill  slaves.  I  am 
recovering,  and  hope  to  go  down  Lualaba,  which  I  would  call  Webb 
Eiver  or  Lake ;  touch  then  another  Lualaba,  which  I  will  name 
Young's  River  or  Lake ;  and  then  by  the  good  hand  of  our  Father 
above  turn  homeward  through  Karagwe.  As  ivory-trading  is  here  like 
gold-digging,  I  felt  constrained  to  off'er  a  handsome  sum  of  money  and 
goods  to  my  friend  Mohamad  Bogharib  for  men.  It  was  better  to  do 
this  than  go  back  to  Ujiji,  and  then  come  over  the  whole  260  miles. 
I  would  have  waited  there  for  men  from  Zanzibar,  but  the  authority  at 
XJjiji  behaved  so  oddly  about  my  letters,  I  fear  they  never  went  to  the 
coast.  The  worthless  slaves  I  have  saw  that  I  was  at  their  mercy,  for 
no  Manyuema  will  go  into  the  next  district,  and  they  behaved  as  low 


416  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

savages   who   have   been   made   free   alone   can.     Their  eagerness  to 
enslave  and  kill  their  own  countrymen  is  distressing,     .     .     . 

*'  Give  my  love  to  Oswell  and  Anna  Mary  and  the  Aunties.  I  have 
received  no  letter  from  any  of  you  since  I  left  home.  The  good  Lord 
bless  you  all,  and  be  gracious  to  you, — Affectionately  yours, 

"  David  Livingstone." 

Another  letter  is  addressed  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  and 
Mr.  Mann,  September,  1869.  He  enters  at  considerable 
length  into  his  reasons  for  the  supposition  that  he  had 
discovered,  on  the  watershed,  the  true  sources  of  the  Nile. 
He  refers  in  a  generous  spirit  to  the  discoveries  of  other 
travelers,  mistaken  though  he  regarded  their  views  on 
the  sources,  and  is  particularly  complimentary  to  Miss 
Tinne : 

"  A  Dutch  lady  whom  I  never  saw,  and  of  whom  I  know  nothing 
save  from  scraps  in  the  newspapers,  moves  my  sympathy  more  than 
any  other.  By  her  wise  foresight  in  providing  a  steamer,  and  pushing 
on  up  the  river  after  the  severest  domestic  affliction — the  loss  by  fever 
of  her  two  aunts — till  after  she  was  assured  by  Speke  and  Grant  that 
they  had  already  discovered  in  Victoria  Nyanza  the  sources  she  sought, 
she  proved  herself  a  genuine  explorer,  and  then  by  trying  to  go  s.w.  on 
land.  Had  they  not,  honestly  enough  of  course,  given  her  their  mis- 
taken views,  she  must  inevitably,  by  boat  or  on  land,  have  reached  the 
head- waters  of  the  Nile.  I  cannot  conceive  of  her  stopping  short  of 
Bangweolo.  She  showed  such  indomitable  pluck  she  must  be  a  de- 
scendant of  Van  Tromp,  who  swept  the  English  Channel  till  killed  by 
our  Blake,  and  whose  tomb  every  Englishman  who  goes  to  Holland  is 
sure  to  visit. 

"We  great  he-beasts  say,  '  Exploration  was  not.  oecoming  her  sex.' 
"Well,  considering  that  at  least  1600  years  have  elapsed  since  Ptolemy's 
informants  reached  this  region,  and  kings,  emperors,  and  all  the  great 
men  of  antiquity  longed  in  vain  to  know  the  fountains,  exploration 
does  not  seem  to  have  become  the  other  sex  either.  She  came  much 
further  up  than  the  two  centurions  sent  by  Nero  Caesar. 

"  I  have  to  go  down  and  see  where  the  two  arms  unite, — the  lost  city 
Meroe  ought  to  be  there, — then  get  back  to  Ujiji  to  get  a  supply  of 
goods  which  I  have  ordered  from  Zanzibar,  turn  bankrupt  after  I 
secure  them,  and  let  my  creditors  catch  me  if  they  can,  as  I  finish  up 
by  going  round  outside  and  south  of  all  the  sources,  so  that  I  may  be 
sure  no  one  w'll  cut  me  out  and  say  he  found  other  sources  south  of 


M^js  .  v£MA.  417 

mine.  This  is  one  reason  for  my  concluding  trip;  another  is  to  visit 
the  underground  houses  in  stone,  and  the  copper  mines  of  Katanga 
which  have  been  worked  for  ages  (Malachite).  I  have  still  a  seriously 
long  task  before  me.  My  letters  have  been  delayed  inexplicably,  so  I 
don't  know  my  affairs.  If  I  have  a  salary  I  don't  know  it,  though  the 
Daily  Telegraph  abused  me  for  receiving  it  when  I  had  none.  Of  this 
alone  I  am  sure — my  friends  will  all  wish  me  to  make  a  complete  work 
of  it  before  I  leave,  and  in  their  wish  I  join.  And  it  is  better  to  go  in 
now  than  to  do  it  in  vain  afterward." 

"I  have  still  a  seriously  long  task  before  me.'*  Yet 
he  had  lately  been  worse  in  health  and  weaker  than  he 
had  ever  been ;  he  was  much  poorer  than  he  expected  to 
be,  and  the  difficulties  had  proved  far  beyond  any  he  had 
hitherto  experienced.  But  so  far  from  thinking  of  taking 
things  more  easily  than  before,  he  actually  enlarges  his 
programme,  and  resolves  to  "finish  up  by  going  round 
outside  and  south  of  all  the  sources."  His  spirit  seems 
only  to  rise  as  difficulties  are  multiplied. 

He  writes  to  his  daughter  Agnes  at  the  same  time: 
"  You  remark  that  you  think  jou.  could  have  traveled  as 
well  as  Mrs.  Baker,  and  I  think  so  too.  Your  mamma 
was  famous  for  roughing  it  in  the  bush,  and  was  never  a 
trouble."  The  allusion  carries  him  to  old  days — their 
travels  to  Lake  'Ngami,  Mrs,  Livingstone's  death,  the 
Helmores,  the  Bishop,  Thornton.  Then  he  speaks  of 
recent  troubles  and  difficulties,  his  attack  of  pneumonia, 
from  which  he  had  not  expected  to  recover,  his  annoy- 
ances with  his  men,  so  unlike  the  old  Makololo,  the  loss 
of  his  letters  and  boxes,  with  the  exception  of  two  from 
an  unknown  donor  that  contained  the  Saturday  Review 
and  his  old  friend  Punch  for  1868.  Then  he  goes  over 
African  travelers  and  their  achievements,  real  and  sup- 
posed. He  returns  again  to  the  achievements  of  ladies, 
and  praises  Miss  Tinne  and  other  women.  "  The  death- 
knell  of  American  slavery  was  rung  by  a  woman's  hand. 
We  great  he-beasts  say  Mrs.  Stowe  exaggerated.  From 
what  I  have  seen  of  slavery  I  say  exaggeration  is  a  simple 


418  DA  VID  LIVINGSTONE, 

impossibility.  I  go  with  the  sailor  who,  on  seeing  slave- 
traders,  said:  'If  the  devil  don't  catch  these  fellows,  we 
might  as  well  have  no  devil  at  all.' " 

The  year  1870  was  begun  with  the  prayer  that  in 
the  course  of  it  he  might  be  able  to  complete  his  enter- 
prise, and  retire  through  the  Basango  before  the  end  of  it. 
In  February  he  hears  with  gratitude  of  Mr.  E.  D.  Young's 
Search  Expedition  up  the  Shire  and  Nyassa.  In  setting 
out  anew  he  takes  a  more  northerly  course,  proceeding 
through  paths  blocked  with  very  rank  vegetation,  and 
suffering  from  choleraic  illness  caused  by  constant  wet- 
tings. In  the  course  of  a  month  the  effects  of  the  wet 
became  overpowering,  and  on  7th  February  Dr.  Living- 
stone had  to  go  into  winter  quarters.  He  remained  quiet 
till  26th  June. 

In  April,  1870,  from  "  Manyuema  or  Cannibal  Country, 
say  150  miles  n.w.  of  Ujiji,"  he  began  a  letter  to  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison,  but  changed  its  destination  to  his 
brother  John  in  Canada.  He  notices  his  immediate  object 
— to  ascertain  where  the  Lualaba  joined  the  eastern  branch 
of  the  Nile,  and  contrasts  the  lucid  reasonable  problem  set 
him  by  Sir  Roderick  with  the  absurd  instructions  he  had 
received  from  some  members  of  the  Geographical  Society. 
"I  was  to  furnish  'a  survey  on  successive  pages  of  my 
journal,'  *  latitudes  every  night,'  *  hydrography  of  Central 
Africa,'  and  because  they  voted  one-fifth  or  perhaps  one- 
sixth  part  of  my  expenses,  give  them  *  all  my  notes,  copies 
if  not  the  originals  I'  For  mere  board  and  no  lodgings  I 
was  to  work  for  years  and  hand  over  the  results  to  them." 
Contrasted  wivh  such  absurdities.  Sir  Roderick's  proposal 
had  quite  fascinated  him.  He  had  ascertained  that  the 
watershed  extended  800  miles  from  west  to  east,  and  hadi 
traversed  it  in  every  direction,  but  at  a  cost  which  had] 
been  wearing  out  both  to  mind  and  body.  He  drops  aj 
tear  over  the  Universities  Mission,  but  becomes  merry] 
over  Bishop  Tozer  strutting  about  with  his  crosier  atl 


MANYUEMA,  419 

Zanzibar,  and  in  a  fine  clear  day  getting  a  distant  view  of 
the  continent  of  which  he  claimed  to  be  Bishop.  He 
denounces  the  vile  policy  of  the  Portuguese^  and  laments 
the  indecision  of  some  influential  persons  who  virtually 
upheld  it.  He  is  tickled  with  the  generous  offer  of  a 
small  salary,  when  he  should  settle  somewhere,  that  had 
been  made  to  him  by  the  Government,  while  men  who 
had  risked  nothing  were  getting  handsome  salaries  of  far 
greater  amount ;  but  rather  than  sacrifice  the  good  of  Africa, 

HE    WOULD    SPEND    EVERY    PENNY    OF    HIS    PRIVATE     MEANS. 

He  seems  surrounded  bv  a  whole  sea  of  difficulties,  but 
through  all,  the  nobility  of  his  spirit  shines  undimmed.  To 
persevere  in  the  line  of  duty  is  his  only  conceivable  course. 
He  holds  as  firmly  as  ever  by  the  old  anchor — "  All  will  turn 
out  right  at  last.'' 

When  ready,  they  set  out  on  26th  June.  Most  of  his 
people  failed  him;  but  nothing  daunted,  he  set  off  then 
with  only  three  attendants,  Susi,  Chuma,  and  Gardner,  to 
the  northwest  for  the  Lualaba.  Whenever  he  comes  among 
Arab  traders  he  finds  himself  suspected  and  hated  because 
he  is  known  to  condemn  their  evil  deeds. 

The  difficulties  by  the  way  were  terrible.  Fallen  trees 
and  flooded  rivers  made  marching  a  perpetual  struggle.  For 
the  flrst  time,  Livingstone's  feet  failed  him.  Instead  of 
healing  as  hitherto,  when  torn  by  hard  travel,  irritating  sores 
fastened  upon  them,  and  as  he  had  but  three  attendants,  he 
had  to  limp  back  to  Bambarre,  which  he  reached  in  the 
middle  of  July. 

And  here  he  remained  in  his  hut  for  eighty  days,  till 
10th  October,  exercising  patience,  harrowed  by  the  wick^ 
edness  he  could  not  stop,  extracting  information  from  the 
natives,  thinking  about  the  fountains  of  thr  ISTile,  trying 
to  do  some  good  among  the  people,  listening  to  accounts 
of  soko-hunting,  and  last,  not  least,  reading  his  Bible. 
He  did  not  leave  Bambarre  till  16th  February,  1871. 
From  what  he  had  seen  and  what  he  had  heard  he  was 


420  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

more  and  more  persuaded  that  he  was  among  the  true 
fountains  of  the  Nile.  His  reverence  for  the  Bible  gave 
that  river  a  sacred  character,  and  to  throw  light  on  its 
origin  seemed  a  kind  of  religious  act.  He  admits,  how- 
ever, that  he  is  not  quite  certain  about  it,  though  he  does 
not  see  how  he  can  be  mistaken.  He  dreams  that  in  his 
early  life  Moses  may  have  been  in  these  parts,  and  if  he 
should  only  discover  any  confirmation  of  sacred  history 
or  sacred  chronology  he  would  not  grudge  all  the  toil  and 
hardship,  the  pain  and  hunger,  he  had  undergone.  The 
very  spot  where  the  fountains  are  to  be  found  becomes 
defined  in  his  mind.  He  even  drafts  a  despatch  which  he 
hopes  to  write,  saying  that  the  fountains  are  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  of  each  other ! 

Then  he  bethinks  him  of  his  friends  who  have  done 
noble  battle  with  slavery,  and  half  in  fancy,  half  in  ear- 
nest, attaches  their  names  to  the  various  waters.  The  foun- 
tain of  the  Liambai  or  Upper  Zambesi  he  names  Palmerston 
Fountain,  in  fond  remembrance  of  that  good  man's  long 
and  unwearied  labor  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade. 
The  lake  formed  by  the  Lufira  is  to  be  Lincoln  Lake,  in 
gratitude  to  him  who  gave  freedom  to  four  millions  of 
slaves.  The  fountain  of  Lufira  is  associated  with  Sir 
Bartle  Frere,  who  accomplished  the  grand  work  of  abol- 
ishing slavery  in  Sindia,  in  Upper  India.  The  central 
Lualaba  is  called  the  River  Webb,  after  the  warm-hearted 
friend  undei  "^hose  roof  he  wrote  The  Zambesi  and  its 
Tributaries;  while  the  western  branch  is  named  the  Young 
Hiver,  to  commemorate  his  early  instructor  in  chemistry 
and  life-long  friend,  James  Young.  "  He  has  shed  pure 
white  light  in  many  lowly  cottages  and  in  some  rich 
palaces.  I,  too,  have  shed  light  of  another  kind,  and  am 
fain  to  believe  that  I  have  performed  a  small  part  in  the 
grand  revolution  which  our  Maker  has  been  for  ages 
carrying  on,  by  multitudes  of  conscious  and  many  uncon- 
scious agents,  all  over  the  world."  * 

T ^  ■ 

*  See  Lasi  jfournalu  vol.  ii.,  pp.  65,  66. 


MANYUEMA.  431 

He  is  by  no  means  unaware  that  death  may  be  in  the 
cup.  But,  fortified  as  he  was  by  an  unalterable  conviction 
that  he  was  in  the  line  of  duty,  the  thought  of  death  had 
no  influence  to  turn  him  either  to  the  right  hand  or  to 
the  left.  For  the  first  three  years  he  had  a  strong  present- 
iment that  he  would  fall.  But  it  had  passed  away  as  he 
came  near  the  end,  and  now  he  prayed  God  that  when  he 
retired  it  might  be  to  his  native  home. 

Probably  no  human  being  was  ever  in  circumstances 
parallel  to  those  in  which  Livingstone  now  stood.  Years 
had  passed  since  he  had  heard  from  home.  The  sound  of 
his  mother-tongue  came  to  him  only  in  the  broken  sen- 
tences of  Chum  a  or  Susi  or  his  other  attendants,  or  in  the 
echoes  of  his  own  voice  as  he  poured  it  out  in  prayer,  or 
in  some  cry  of  home-sickness  that  could  not  be  kept  in. 
In  long  pain  and  sickness  there  had  been  neither  wife  nor 
child  nor  brother  to  cheer  him  with  sympathy,  or  lighten 
his  dull  hut  with  a  smile.  He  had  been  baffled  and 
tantalized  beyond  description  in  his  efforts  to  complete 
the  little  bit  of  exploration  which  was  yet  necessary  to 
finish  his  task.  His  soul  was  vexed  for  the  frightful 
exhibitions  of  wickedness  around  him,  where  "man  to 
man,"  instead  of  brothers,  were  worse  than  wolves  and 
tigers  to  each  other  During  all  his  past  life  he  had 
been  sowing  his  seed  weeping,  but  so  far  was  he  from 
bringing  back  his  sheaves  rejoicing,  that  the  longer  he 
lived  the  more  cause  there  seemed  for  his  tears.  He 
had  not  yet  seen  of  the  travail  of  his  soul.  In  opening 
Africa  he  had  seemed  to  open  it  for  brutal  slave-traders, 
and  in  the  only  instance  in  which  he  had  yet  brought 
to  it  the  feet  of  men  "  beautiful  upon  the  mountains, 
publishing  peace,"  disaster  had  befallen,  and  an  incom- 
petent leader  had  broken  up  the  enterprise.  Yet,  apart 
from  his  sense  of  duty,  there  was  no  necessity  for  his  re- 
maining there.  He  was  offering  himself  a  freewill-offering, 
a  living  sacrifice.  What  could  have  sustained  his  heart 
86 


422  DA  VID  LIVIN  GST  ONE, 

and  kept  him  firm  to  his  purpose  in  such  a  wilderness  of 
desolation  ? 

"  I  read  the  whole  Bible  through  four  times  whilst  I 
was  in  Manyuema." 

So  he  wrote  in  his  Diary,  not  at  the  time,  but  the 
year  after,  on  the  3d  October,  1871.^  The  Bible  gathers 
wonderful  interest  from  the  circumstances  in  which  it 
is  read.  In  Livingstone's  circumstances  it  was  more 
the  Bible  to  him  than  ever.  All  his  loneliness  and 
sorrow,  the  sickness  of  hope  deferred,  the  yearnings 
for  home  that  could  neither  be  repressed  nor  gratified, 
threw  a  new  light  on  the  Word.  How  clearly  it  was 
intended  for  such  as  him,  and  how  sweetly  it  came 
home  to  him!  How  faithful,  too,  were  its  pictures 
of  human  sin  and  sorrow  I  How  true  its  testimony 
against  man,  who  will  not  retain  God  in  his  knowledge, 
but,  leaving  Him,  becomes  vain  in  his  imaginations  and 
hard  in  his  heart,  till  the  bloom  of  Eden  is  gone,  and  a 
waste,  howling  wilderness  spreads  around  I  How  glorious 
the  out-beaming  of  Divine  Love,  drawing  near  to  this 
guilty  race,  winning  and  cherishing  them  with  every 
endearing  act,  and  at  last  dying  on  the  cross  to  redeem 
them  I  And  how  bright  the  closing  scene  of  Revelation 
— ^the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness — yes,  he  can  appreciate  that  attribute — 
the  curse  gone,  death  abolished,  and  all  tears  wiped  from 
the  mourner's  eye  I 

So  the  lonely  man  in  his  dull  hut  is  riveted  to  the 
well-worn  book ;  ever  finding  it  a  greater  treasure  as  he 
goes  along ;  and  fain,  when  he  has  reached  its  last  page, 
to  turn  back  to  the  beginning,  and  gather  up  more  of  the 
riches  which  he  has  left  upon  the  road. 

To  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  and  Mr.  Mann  he  writes 
during  his  detention  (September,  1870)  on  a  leaf  of  his 
cheque-book,  his  paper  being  done.     He  gives  his  theory 

*  See  Last  jfourtuils,  vol.  '.:.  p.  164. 


MANYUEMA.  i23 

of  the  rivers,  enlarges  on  the  fertility  of  the  country, 
bewails  his  difficulty  in  getting  men,  as  the  Manyuema 
never  go  beyond  their  own  country,  and  the  traders,  who 
have  only  begun  to  come  there,  are  too  busy  collecting 
ivory  to  be  able  to  spare  men.  "  The  tusks  were  left  in 
the  terrible  forests,  where  the  animals  were  killed ;  the 
people,  if  treated  civilly,  readily  go  and  bring  the  precious 
teeth,  some  half  rotten,  or  gnawed  by  the  teeth  of  a 
rodent  called  dezi.  I  think  that  mad  naturalists  name  it 
Aulocaudatus  Swindermanus,  or  some  equally  wise  agglu- 
tination of  syllables.  .  .  .  My  chronometers  are  all 
dead ;  I  hope  my  old  watch  was  sent  to  Zanzibar ;  but  I 
have  got  no  letters  for  years,  save  some,  three  years  old, 
at  Ujiji.  I  have  an  intense  and  sore  longing  to  finish  and 
retire,  and  trust  that  the  Almighty  may  permit  me  to  go 
home." 

In  one  of  his  letters  to  Aenes  from  Manyuema  he  quotes 
some  words  from  a  letter  oi  xiers  that  he  ever  after  cher- 
ished as  a  most  refreshing  cordial : 

"  I  commit  myself  to  the  Almighty  Disposer  of  events, 
and  if  I  fall,  will  do  so  doing  my  duty,  like  one  of  his 
stout-hearted  servants.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  you  say 
that,  much  as  you  wish  me  home,  you  would  rather  hear 
of  my  finishing  my  work  to  my  own  satisfaction  than 
come  merely  to  gratify  you.  That  is  a  noble  sentence,  and 
I  felt  all  along  sure  that  all  my  friends  would  wish  me  to 
make  a  complete  work  of  it,  and  in  that  wish,  in  spite  of 
every  difficulty,  I  cordially  joined.  I  hope  to  present  to 
my  young  countrymen  an  example  of  manly  perseverance. 
I  shall  not  hide  from  you  that  I  am  made  by  it  very  old 
and  shaky,  my  cheeks  fallen  in,  space  round  the  eyes 
ditto;  mouth  almost  toothless, — a  few  teeth  that  remain, 
out  of  their  line,  so  that  a  smile  is  that  of  a  he-hippopota- 
mus,— a  dreadful  old  fogie,  and  you  must  tell  Sir  Roderick 
that  it  is  an  utter  impossibility  for  me  to  appear  in  public 
till  1  get  new  teeth,  and  even  then  the  less  I  am  seen  the 
better," 


424  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Another  letter  to  Agnes  from  Manyuema  gives  a  curious 
account  of  the  young  soko  or  gorilla  a  chief  had  lately 
presented  to  him: 

*'  She  sits  crouching  eighteen  inches  high,  and  is  the  most  intelligent 
and  least  mischievous  of  all  the  monkeys  I  have  seen.  She  holds  out 
her  hand  to  be  lifted  and  carried,  and  if  refused  makes  her  face  as  in  a 
bitter  human  weeping,  and  wrings  her  hands  quite  humanly,  some- 
times adding  a  loot  or  third  hand  to  make  the  appeal  more  touching. 
,  .  ,  She  knew  me  at  once  as  a  friend,  and  when  plagued  by  any 
one  always  placed  her  back  to  me  for  safety,  came  and  sat  down  on  my 
mat,  decently  made  a  nest  of  grass  and  leaves,  and  covered  herself  with 
the  mat  to  sleep.  I  cannot  take  her  with  me,  though  I  fear  that  she 
will  die  before  I  return,  from  people  plaguing  her.  Her  fine  long  black 
hair  was  beautiful  when  tended  by  her  mother,  who  was  killed.  I  am 
mobbed  enough  alone  j  two  sokos — she  and  I — would  not  have  got 
breath. 

"  I  have  to  submit  to  be  a  gazing-stock.  I  don't  altogether  relish  it, 
here  or  elsewhere,  but  try  to  get  over  it  good-naturedly,  get  into  the 
most  shady  spot  of  the  village,  and  leisurely  look  at  all  my  admirers. 
When  the  first  crowd  begins  to  go  away,  I  go  into  my  lodgings  to  takt 
what  food  may  be  prepared,  as  coffee,  when  I  have  it,  or  roasted  maize 
infusion  when  I  have  none.  The  door  is  shut,  all  save  a  space  to  admit 
light.  It  is  made  of  the  inner  bark  of  a  gigantic  tree,  not  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  thick,  and  slides  in  a  groove  behind  a  post  on  each  side  of  the 
doorway.  When  partially  open  it  is  supported  by  only  one  of  the 
posts.  Eager  heads  sometimes  crowd  the  open  space,  and  crash  goes 
the  thin  door,  landing  a  Manyuema  beauty  on  the  floor.  '  It  was  not 
I,'  she  gasps  out,  '  it  was  Bessie  Bell  and  Jeanie  Gray  that  shoved  me 
in.  and — '  as  she  scrambles  out  of  the  lion's  den,  'see  they're  laugh- 
ing'; and,  fairly  out,  she  joins  in  the  merry  giggle  too.  To  avoid  dark- 
ness or  being  half-smothered,  I  often  eat  in  public,  draw  a  line  on  the 
ground,  then  *  toe  the  line,'  and  keep  them  out  of  the  circle.  To  see 
me  eating  with  knife,  fork,  and  spoon  is  wonderful.  '  See  1 — they  don't 
touch  their  food  I — what  oddities,  to  be  sure.*     .     .    . 

''Many  of  the  Manyuema  women  are  very  pretty  j  their  hands,  feet, 
limbs,  and  form  are  perfect.  The  men  are  handsome.  Compared  with 
them  the  Zanzibar  slaves  are  like  London  door-knockers,  which  some 
atrocious  iron-foundei  thought  were  like  lions'  faces.  The  way  in 
which  these  same  Zanzibar  Mohammedans  murder  the  men  and  seize 
the  women  and  children  makes  me  sick  at  heart.  It  is  not  slave-trade. 
It  is  murdering  free  people  to  make  slaves.  It  is  perfectly  indescrib- 
able.    Kirk  has  been  working  hara  to  get  this  murdersome  system  put 


MANYUEMA,  425 

%  Btop  to.  Heaven  prosper  his  noble  efforts  I  He  says  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  me,  '  It  is  monstrous  injustice  to  compare  the  free  people  in 
the  interior,  living  under  their  own  chiefs  and  laws,  with  what  slaves 
at  Zanzibar  afterward  become  by  the  abominable  system  which  robs 
them  of  their  manhood.  I  think  it  is  like  comparing  the  anthropolo* 
gists  with  their  ancestral  sokos.'     .     .     » 

"  I  am  grieved  to  hear  of  the  departure  of  good  Lady  Murchison. 
Had  I  known  that  she  kindly  remembered  me  in  her  prayers,  it  would 
have  been  great  encouragement.     .     .     . 

"The  men  sent  by  Dr.  Kirk  are  Mohammedans,  tnat  is,  unmitigated 
liars.  Musa  and  his  companions  are  fair  specimens  of  the  lower  class 
of  Moslems.  The  two  head-men  remained  at  Ujiji,  to  feast  on  my 
goods,  and  get  pay  without  work.  Seven  came  to  Bambarre,  and  in 
true  Moslem  style  swore  that  they  were  sent  by  Dr.  Kirk  to  bring  mc 
back,  not  to  go  with  me,  if  the  country  were  bad  or  dangerous.  For- 
ward they  would  not  go.  I  read  Dr.  Kirk's  words  to  them  to  follow 
wheresoever  I  led.  '  No,  by  the  old  liar  Mohamed,  they  were  to  force 
me  back  to  Zanzibar.'  After  a  superabundance  of  falsehood,  it  turned 
out  that  it  all  meant  only  an  advance  of  pay,  though  they  had  double 
the  Zanzibar  wages.  I  gave  it,  but  had  to  threaten  on  the  word  of  an 
Englishman  to  shoot  the  ringleaders  before  I  got  them  to  go.  They 
all  speak  of  English  as  men  who  do  not  lie.  ...  I  have  traveled 
more  than  most  people,  and  with  all  sorts  of  followers.  The  Christians 
of  Kuruman  and  Kolobeng  were  out  of  sight  the  best  I  ever  had.  The 
Makololo,  who  were  very  partially  Christianized,  were  next  best — • 
honest,  truthful,  and  brave.  Heathen  Africans  are  much  superior  to 
the  Mohammedans,  who  are  the  most  worthless  one  can  have." 

Toward  the  end  of  1870,  before  the  date  of  this  letter, 
he  had  so  far  recovered  that,  though  feeling  the  want  of 
medicine  as  much  as  of  men,  he  thought  of  setting  out,  in 
order  to  reach  and  explore  the  Lualaba,  having  made  a 
bargain  with  Mohamad,  for  £270,  to  bring  him  to  his 
destination.  But  now  he  heard  that  Syde  bin  Habib, 
Dugumbe,  and  others  were  on  the  way  from  Ujiji,  per- 
haps bringing  letters  and  medicines  for  him.  He  cannot 
move  till  they  arrive ;  another  weary  time.  "  Sorely  am  I 
perplexed,  and  grieve  and  mourn." 

The  New  Year  1871  passes  while  he  is  at  Bambarre, 
with  its  prayer  that  he  might  be  permitted  to  finish  his 
task.    At  last,  on  4th  February,  ten  of  the  men  despatched 


426  DAVJI)  LIVINGSTONK 

to  him  from  the  coast  arrive,  but  only  to  bring  a  fresh 
disappointment.  They  were  slaves,  the  property  of  Ba- 
nians, who  were  British  subjects !  and  they  brought  only 
one  letter  I  Forty  had  been  lost.  There  had  been  cholera 
at  Zanzibar,  and  many  of  the  porters  sent  by  Dr.  Kirk 
had  died  of  it.  The  ten  men  came  with  a  lie  in  their 
mouth ;  they  would  not  help  him,  swearing  that  the  Con- 
sul told  them  not  to  go  forward,  but  to  force  Livingstone 
back.  On  the  10th  they  mutinied,  and  had  to  receive  an 
advance  of  pay.  It  was  apparent  that  they  had  been  in- 
structed by  their  Banian  masters  to  bafHe  him  in  every 
way,  so  that  their  slave-trading  should  not  be  injured  by 
his  disclosures.  Their  two  head-men,  Shereef  and  Awathe, 
had  refused  to  come  farther  than  Ujiji,  and  were  reveling 
in  his  goods  there.  Dr.  Livingstone  never  ceased  to  lament 
and  deplore  that  the  men  who  had  been  sent  to  him  were 
so  utterly  unsuitable.  One  of  them  actually  formed  a  plot 
for  his  destruction,  which  was  only  frustrated  through  his 
being  overheard  by  one  whom  Livingstone  could  trust. 
Livingstone  wrote  to  his  friends  that  owing  to  the  ineffi- 
ciency of  the  men,  he  lost  two  years  of  time,  about  a  thou- 
sand pounds  in  money,  had  some  2000  miles  of  useless 
traveling,  and  was  four  several  times  subjected  to  the  risk 
of  a  violent  death. 

At  length,  having  arranged  with  the  men,  he  sets  out 
on  16th  February  over  a  most  beautiful  country,  but  woe- 
fully difficult  to  pass  through.  Perhaps  it  was  hardly  a 
less  bitter  disappointment  to  be  told,  on  the  25th,  that  the 
Lualaba  flowed  west-southwest,  so  that  after  all  it  might 
be  the  Congo. 

On  the  29th  March  Livingstone  arrived  at  Nyangwe,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Lualaba.  This  was  the  farthest  point 
westward  that  he  reached  in  his  last  Expedition. 

The  slave-trade  here  he  finds  to  be  as  horrible  as  in  any 
other  part  of  Africa.  He  is  heart-sore  for  human  blood. 
He  is  threatened,  bullied,  and  almost  attacked.     In  somd 


MANYUEMA.  427 

places,  however,  the  rumor  spreads  that  he  makes  no 
slaves,  and  he  is  called  "  the  good  one."  His  men  are  a 
ceaseless  trouble,  and  for  ever  mutinying,  or  otherwise 
harassing  him.  And  jet  he  perseveres  in  his  old  kind  way, 
hoping  by  kindness  to  gain  influence  with  them.  Mohamad's 
people,  he  finds,  have  passed  him  on  the  west,  and  thus 
he  loses  a  number  of  serviceable  articles  he  was  to  get  from 
them,  and  all  the  notes  made  for  him  of  the  rivers  they 
had  passed.  The  difficulties  and  discouragements  are  so 
great  that  he  wonders  whether,  after  all,  God  is  smiling  on 
his  work. 

His  own  men  circulate  such  calumnious  reports  against 
him  that  he  is  unable  to  get  canoes  for  the  navigation  of 
the  Lualaba.  This  leads  to  weeks  and  months  of  w^eary 
waiting,  and  yet  all  in  vain;  but  afterward  he  finds  some 
consolation  on  discovering  that  the  navigation  was  perilous, 
that  a  canoe  had  been  lost  from  the  inexperience  of  her 
crew  in  the  rapids,  so  that  had  he  been  there,  he  should  very 
likely  have  perished,  as  his  canoe  would  probably  have  been 
foremost. 

A  change  of  plan  was  necessary.  On  5th  July  he  offered 
to  Dugumbe  £400,  with  all  the  goods  he  had  at  IJjiji 
besides,  for  men  to  replace  the  Banian  slaves,  and  for  the 
other  means  of  going  up  the  Lomame  to  Katanga,  then 
returning  and  going  up  Tanganyika  to  Ujiji.  Dugumbe 
took  a  little  time  to  consult  his  friends  before  replying  to 
the  offer. 

Meanwhile  an  event  occurred  of  unprecedented  horror, 
that  showed  Livingstone  that  he  could  not  go  to  Lomame 
in  the  company  of  Dugumbe.  Between  Dugumbe's  people 
and  another  chief  a  frightful  system  of  pillage,  murder, 
and  burning  of  villages  was  going  on  with  horrible 
activity.  One  bright  summer  morning,  15th  July,  when 
fifteen  hundred  people,  chiefly  women,  were  engaged  peace- 
fully in  marketing  in  a  village  on  the  banks  of  the 
Lualaba,  and  while  Dr.  Livingstone  was  sauntering  about, 


428  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

a  murderous  fire  was  opened  on  the  people,  and  a  massacre 
ensued  of  such  measureless  atrocity  that  he  could  describe 
it  only  by  saying  that  it  gave  him  the  impression  of  being 
in  hell.  The  event  was  so  superlatively  horrible,  and  had 
such  an  overwhelming  influence  on  Livingstone,  that  we 
copy  at  full  length  the  description  of  it  given  in  the  Last 
Journals : 

**  Before  I  had  got  thirty  yards  out,  the  discharge  of  two  guns  in  the 
middle  of  the  crowd  told  me  that  slaughter  had  begun  :  crowds  dashed 
off  from  the  place,  and  threw  down  their  wares  in  confusion,  and  ran^ 
At  the  same  time  that  the  three  opened  fire  on  the  mass  of  people  near 
the  upper  end  of  the  market-place,  volleys  were  discharged  from  a  party 
down  near  the  creek  on  the  panic-stricken  women,  who  dashed  at  the 
canoes.  These,  some  fifty  or  more,  were  jammed  in  the  creek,  and  the 
men  forgot  their  paddles  in  the  terror  that  seized  all.  The  canoes  were 
not  to  be  got  out,  for  the  creek  was  too  small  for  so  many  j  men  and 
women,  wounded  by  the  balls,  poured  into  them,  and  leaped  and 
scrambled  into  the  water,  shrieking  A  long  line  of  heads  in  the  river 
showed  that  great  numbers  struck  out  for  an  island  a  full  mile  off;  in 
going  toward  it  they  had  to  put  the  left  shoulder  to  a  current  of  about 
two  miles  an  hour;  if  they  had  struck  away  diagonally  to  the  opposite 
bank,  the  current  would  have  aided  them,  and,  though  nearly  three 
miles  off,  some  would  have  gained  land ;  as  it  was,  the  heads  above 
water  showed  the  long  line  of  those  that  would  inevitably  perish. 

"Shot  after  shot  continued  to  be  fired  on  the  helpless  and  perishing. 
Some  of  the  long  line  of  heads  disappeared  quietly ;  whilst  other  poor 
creatures  threw  their  arms  high,  as  if  appealing  to  the  great  Father 
above,  and  sank.  One  canoe  took  in  as  many  as  it  could  hold,  and  all 
paddled  with  hands  and  arms;  three  canoes,  got  out  in  haste,  picked 
up  sinking  friends,  till  all  went  down  together,  and  disappeared.  One 
man  in  a  long  canoe,  which  could  have  held  forty  or  fifty,  had  clearly 
lost  his  head ;  he  had  been  out  in  the  stream  before  the  massacre  began, 
and  now  paddled  up  the  river  nowhere,  and  never  looked  to  the  drown, 
ing.  By  and  by  all  the  heads  disappeared ;  some  had  turned  down 
stream  toward  the  bank,  and  escaped.  Dugumb6  put  people  into  one 
of  the  deserted  vessls  to  save  those  in  the  water,  and  saved  twenty-one ; 
but  one  woman  refused  to  be  taken  on  board,  from  thinking  that  she 
was  to  be  made  a  slave  of;  she  preferred  the  chance  of  life  by  swim- 
ming, to  the  lot  of  a  slave.  The  Bagenya  women  are  expert  in  the 
water,  as  they  are  accustomed  to  dive  for  oysters,  and  those  who  went 
down  stream  may  have  escaped,  but  the  Arabs  themselves  estimated 


MANYUEMA.  429 

the  I088  of  life  at  between  330  and  400  souls.  The  shooting-party  near 
the  canoes  were  so  reckless,  they  killed  two  of  their  own  people ;  and  a 
Banyamwezi  follower,  who  got  into  a  deserted  canoe  to  plunder,  fell 
into  the  water,  went  down,  then  came  up  again,  and  down  to  rise  no 
more. 

"  After  the  terrible  affair  in  the  water,  the  party  of  Tagamoio,  who 
was  the  chief  perpetrator,  continued  to  fire  on  the  people  there,  and  fire 
their  villages.  As  I  write  I  hear  the  loud  wails  on  the  left  bank  over 
those  who  are  there  slain,  ignorant  of  their  many  friends  now  in  the 
depths  of  Lualaba.  Oh,  let  Thy  kingdom  come  I  No  one  will  ever 
know  the  exact  loss  on  this  bright  sultry  summer  morning;  it  gave  me 
the  impression  of  being  in  Hell.  All  the  slaves  in  the  camp  rushed 
at  the  fugitives  on  land,  and  plundered  them ;  women  were  for  houra 
collecting  and  carrying  loads  of  what  had  been  thrown  down  in  terror." 

The  remembrance  of  this  awful  scene  was  never  effaced 
from  Livingstone's  heart.  The  accounts  of  it  published  in 
the  newspapers  at  home  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the 
country.  It  was  recorded  at  great  length  in  a  despatch  to 
the  Foreign  Secretary,  and  indeed,  it  became  one  of  the 
chief  causes  of  the  appointment  of  a  Royal  Commission  to 
investigate  the  subject  of  the  African  slave-trade,  and 
of  the  mission  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere  to  Africa  to  concert 
measures  for  bringing  it  to  an  end. 

Dugumbe  had  not  been  the  active  perpetrator  of  the 
massacre,  but  he  was  mixed  up  with  the  atrocities  that 
had  been  committed,  and  Livingstone  could  have  nothing 
to  do  with  him.  It  was  a  great  trial,  for,  as  the  Banian 
men  were  impracticable,  there  was  nothing  for  it  now  but 
to  go  back  to  Ujiji,  and  try  to  get  other  men  there  with 
whom  he  would  repeat  the  attempt  to  explore  the  river. 
For  twenty-one  months,  counting  from  the  period  of  their 
engagement,  he  had  fed  and  clothed  these  men,  all  in  vain, 
and  now  he  had  to  trudge  back  forty-five  days,  a  journey 
equal,  with  all  its  turnings  and  windings,  to  six  hundred 
miles.  Livingstone  was  ill,  and  after  such  an  exciting 
time  he  would  probably  have  had  an  attack  of  fever,  but 
for  another  ailment  to  which  he  had  become  more  es- 
pecially subject.    The  intestinal  canal  had  given  way,  and 


490  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

he  was  subject  to  attacks  of  severe  internal  haemorrhage, 
one  of  which  came  on  him  now.*  It  appeared  afterward 
that  had  he  gone  with  Dugumbe,  he  would  have  been 
exposed  to  an  assault  in  force  by  the  Bakuss,  as  they  made 
an  attack  on  the  party  and  routed  them,  killing  two  hun- 
dred. If  Livingstone  had  been  among  them,  he  might 
have  fallen  in  this  engagement.  So  again,  he  saw  how 
present  disappointments  work  for  good. 

The  journey  back  to  Ujiji,  begun  20th  July,  1871,  was  a 
very  wretched  one.  Amid  the  universal  desolation  caused 
by  the  very  wantonness  of  the  marauders,  it  was  impossible 
for  Livingstone  to  persuade  the  natives  that  he  did  not 
belong  to  the  same  set.  Ambushes  were  set  for  him  and 
his  company  in  the  forest.  On  the  8th  August  they  came 
to  an  ambushment  all  prepared,  but  it  had  been  aban- 
doned for  some  unknown  reason.  By  and  by,  on  the  same 
day,  a  large  spear  flew  past  Livingstone,  grazing  his  neck ; 
the  native  who  flung  it  was  but  ten  yards  off;  the  hand  of 
God  alone  saved  his  life.^  Farther  on,  another  spear  was 
thrown,  which  missed  him  by  a  foot.  On  the  same  day 
a  large  tree,  to  which  fire  had  been  applied  to  fell  it,  came 
down  within  a  yard  of  him.  Thus  on  one  day  he  was 
delivered  three  times  from  impending  death.  He  went  on 
through  the  forest,  expecting  every  minute  to  be  attacked, 
having  no  fear,  but  perfectly  indifierent  whether  he  should 
be  killed  or  not.  He  lost  all  his  remaining  calico  that  day, 
a  telescope,  umbrella,  and  five  spears.  By  and  by  he  was 
prostrated  with  grievous  illness.  As  soon  as  he  could 
move  he  went  onward,  but  he  felt  as  if  dying  on  his  feet. 
And  he  was  ill-rigged  for  the  road,  for  the  light  French 
shoes  to  which  he  was  reduced,  and  which  had  been  cui 
to  ease  his  fejt  till  they  would  hardly  hang  together,  failed 

*  Hb  friends  say  that  for  a  considerable  time  before  he  had  been  subject  to 
die  most  gricYous  pain  from  haemorrhoids.  His  sufferings  were  often  excru* 
•iating. 

•  The  head  of  this  spear  is  among  the  Livingstone  relics  at  Newstead  Abb^« 


MANYUEMA,  481 

to  protect  him  from  the  sharp  fragments  of  quartz  with 
which  the  road  was  strewed.  He  was  getting  near  to  Ujiji, 
however,  where  abundance  of  goods  and  comforts  were  no 
doubt  safely  stowed  away  for  him,  and  the  hope  of  relief 
sustained  him  under  all  his  trials. 

At  last,  on  the  23d  October,  reduced  to  a  living  skeleton, 
he  reached  Ujiji.  What  was  his  misery,  instead  of  finding 
the  abundance  of  goods  he  had  expected,  to  learn  that  the 
wretch  Shereef,  to  whom  they  had  been  consigned,  had 
sold  ofi"  the  whole,  not  leaving  one  yard  of  calico  out  of 
8000,  or  one  string  of  beads  out  of  700  pounds!  The 
scoundrel  had  divined  on  the  Koran,  found  that  Living- 
stone was  dead,  and  would  need  the  goods  no  more.  Liv- 
ingstone had  intended,  if  he  could  not  get  men  at  Ujiji  to 
go  with  him  to  the  Lualaba,  to  wait  there  till  suitable 
men  should  be  sent  up  from  the  coast ;  but  he  had  never 
thought  of  having  to  wait  in  beggary.  If  anything  could 
have  aggravated  the  annoyance,  it  was  to  see  Shereef  come, 
without  shame,  to  salute  him,  and  tell  him  on  leaving, 
that  he  was  going  to  pray;  or  to  see  his  slaves  passing 
from  the  market  with  all  the  good  things  his  property 
had  bought  I  Livingstone  applied  a  term  to  him  which 
he  reserved  for  men — black  or  white — whose  wickedness 
made  them  alike  shameless  and  stupid — he  was  a  "  moral 
idiot." 

It  was  the  old  story  of  the  traveler  who  fell  among 
thieves  that  robbed  him  of  all  he  had ;  but  where  was  the 
good  Samaritan  ?  The  Government  and  the  Geographical 
Society  appeared  to  have  passed  by  on  the  other  side.  But 
the  good  Samaritan  was  not  as  far  off  as  might  have  been 
thought.  One  morning  Syed  bin  Majid,  an  Arab  trader, 
came  to  him  with  a  generous  offer  to  sell  some  ivory  and 
get  goods  for  him ;  but  Livingstone  had  the  old  feeling  of 
independence,  and  having  still  a  few  barter  goods  left, 
which  he  had  deposited  with  Mohamad  bin  Saleh  before 
going  to  Manyuema,  he  declined  for  the  present  Syed'a 


432  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

generous  offer.  But  the  kindness  of  Syed  was  not  the 
only  proof  that  he  was  not  forsaken.  Five  days  after  he 
reached  Ujiji  the  good  Samaritan  appeared  from  another 
quarter.  As  Livingstone  had  been  approaching  Ujiji  from 
the  southwest,  another  white  man  had  been  approaching 
it  from  the  east.  On  28th  October,  1871,  Henry  Moreland 
Stanley,  who  had  been  sent  to  look  for  him  by  Mr.  James 
Gordon  Bennett,  Jr.,  of  the  New  York  Herald  newspaper, 
grasped  the  hand  of  David  Livingstone.  An  angel  from 
heaven  could  hardly  have  been  more  welcome.  In  a 
moment  the  sky  brightened.  Stanley  was  provided  with 
ample  stores,  and  was  delighted  to  supply  the  wants  of  the 
traveler.  The  sense  of  sympathy,  the  feeling  of  brother- 
hood, the  blessing  of  fellowship,  acted  like  a  charm.  Four 
good  meals  a  day,  instead  of  the  spare  and  tasteless  food 
of  the  country,  made  a  wonderful  change  on  the  outer 
man ;  and  in  a  few  days  Livingstone  was  himself  again — 
hearty  and  happy  and  hopeful  as  before. 

Before  closing  this  chapter  and  entering  on  the  last  two 
years  of  Livingstone's  life,  which  have  so  lively  an  interest 
of  their  own,  it  will  be  convenient  to  glance  at  the  contri- 
butions to  natural  science  which  he  continued  to  make  to 
the  very  end.  In  doing  this,  we  avail  ourselves  of  a  very 
tender  and  Christian  tribute  to  the  memory  of  his  early 
friend,  which  Professor  Owen  contributed  to  the  Quarterly 
Review,  April,  1875,  after  the  publication  of  Livingstone's 
La^t  Journals. 

Mr.  Owen  appears  to  have  been  convinced  by  Living* 
stone's  reasoning  and  observations,  that  the  Nile  sources 
were  in  the  Bangweolo  watershed — a  supposition  now 
ascertained  to  have  been  erroneous.  But  what  chiefly 
attracted  and  delighted  the  great  naturalist  was  the  many 
interesting  notices  of  plants  and  animals  scattered  over 
the  Last  Journals.  These  Journals  contain  important  con- 
tributions both  to  economic  and  physiological  botany.  In 
the  former  department,  Livingstone  makes  valuable  obser- 


MANYUEMA.  433 

vations  on  plants  useful  in  the  arts,  such  as  gum-copal, 
papyrus,  cotton,  india-rubber,  and  the  palm-oil  tree;  while 
in  the  latter,  his  notices  of  "  carnivorous  plants,"  which 
catch  insects  that  probably  yield  nourishment  to  the 
plant,  of  silicified  wood  and  the  like,  show  how  carefully 
he  watched  all  that  throws  light  on  the  life  and  changes 
of  plants.  In  zoology  he  was  never  weary  of  observing, 
especially  when  he  found  a  strange-looking  animal  with 
strange  habits.  Spiders,  ants,  and  bees  of  unknown  varie- 
ties were  brought  to  light,  but  ihe  strangest  of  his  new 
acquaintances  were  among  the  fishy  tribes.  He  found  fish 
that  made  long  excursions  on  land,  thanks  to  the  wet  grass 
through  which  they  would  wander  for  miles,  thus  proving 
that  "  a  fish  out  of  water"  is  not  always  the  best  symbol 
for  a  man  out  of  his  element.  There  were  fish,  too,  that 
burrowed  in  the  earth ;  but  most  remarkable  at  first  sight 
were  the  fish  that  appeared  to  bring  forth  their  young  by 
ejecting  them  from  their  mouths.  If  Bruce  or  Du  Chaillu 
had  made  such  a  statement,  remarks  Professor  Owen,  what 
ridicule  would  they  not  have  encountered  I  But  Living- 
stone was  not  the  man  to  make  a  statement  of  what  he 
had  not  ascertained,  or  to  be  content  until  he  had  found  a 
scientific  explanation  of  it.  He  found  that  in  the  bran- 
chial openings  of  the  fish,  there  occur  bags  or  pouches,  on 
the  same  principle  as  the  pouch  of  the  opossum,  where  the 
young  may  be  lodged  for  a  time  for  protection  or  nourish- 
ment, and  that  when  the  creatures  are  discharged  through 
the  mouth  into  the  water,  it  is  only  from  a  temporary 
cradle  where  they  were  probably  enjoying  repose,  beyond 
the  reach  of  enemies. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  of  Livingstone's  scientific  discov- 
eries during  this  journey  was  that  **  of  a  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  earth's  surface  in  elevated  tracts  of  the  great 
continent,  unknown  before."  The  bogs  or  earth-sponges, 
that  from  his  first  acquaintance  with  them  gave  him  so 
much  trouble,  and  at  last  proved  the  occasion  of  his  death, 
37 


434  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

were  not  only  remarkable  in  themselves,  but  interesting 
as  probably  explaining  the  annual  inundations  of  most  of 
the  rivers.  Wherever  there  was  a  plain  sloping  toward  a 
narrow  opening  in  hills  or  higher  ground,  there  were  the 
conditions  for  an  African  sponge.  The  vegetation  falls 
down  and  rots,  and  forms  a  rich  black  loam,  resting  often, 
two  or  three  feet  thick,  on  a  bed  of  pure  river  sand.  Th' 
early  rains  turn  the  vegetation  into  slush,  and  fill  th. 
pools.  The  later  rains,  finding  the  pools  already  full,  run 
off  to  the  rivers,  and  form  the  inundation.  The  first  rains 
occur  south  of  the  equator  when  the  sun  goes  vertically 
over  any  spot,  and  the  second  or  greater  rains  happen  in 
his  course  north  again.  This,  certainly,  was  the  case  as 
observed  on  the  Zambesi  and  Shire,  and  taking  the  difier- 
ent  times  for  the  sun's  passage  north  of  the  equator,  it 
explained  the  inundations  of  the  Nile. 

Such  notices  show  that  in  his  love  of  nature,  and  in  his 
careful  observation  of  all  her  agencies  and  processes,  Liv- 
ingstone, in  his  last  journeys,  was  the  same  as  ever.  He 
looked  reverently  on  all  plants  and  animals,  and  on  the 
solid  earth  in  all  its  aspects  and  forms,  as  the  creatures 
of  that  same  God  whose  iove  in  Christ  it  was  his  heart's 
delight  to  proclaim.  His  whole  life,  so  varied  in  its  out- 
ward employments,  yet  so  simple  and  transparent  in  its 
one  great  object,  was  ruled  by  the  conviction  that  the  God 
of  nature  and  the  God  of  revelation  were  one.  While 
thoroughly  enjoying  his  work  as  a  naturalist.  Professor 
Owen  frankly  admits  that  it  was  but  a  secondary  object 
of  his  life.  "  Of  his  primary  work  the  record  is  on  high, 
and  its  imperishable  fruits  remain  on  earth.  The  seeds 
of  the  Word  of  Life  implanted  lovingly,  with  pains  and 
labor,  and  above  all  with  faith ;  the  out-door  scenes  of  the 
simple  Sabbath  service;  the  testimony  of  Him  to  whom 
the  worship  was  paid,  given  in  terms  of  such  simplicity  as 
were  fitted  to  the  comprehension  of  the  dark-skinned 
listeners, — these  seeds  will  not  have  been  scattered  by  him 


MANYUEMA,  435 

in  vain.  Nor  have  they  been  sown  in  words  alone,  but  in 
deeds,  of  which  some  part  of  the  honor  will  redound  to 
his  successors.  The  teaching  by  forgiveness  of  injuries, — ■ 
by  trust,  however  unworthy  the  trusted, — by  that  confi- 
dence which  imputed  his  own  noble  nature  to  those  whom 
he  would  win, — by  the  practical  enforcement  of  the  fact 
that  a  man  might  promise  and  perform — might  say  the 
thing  he  meant, — of  this  teaching  by  good  deeds,  as  well 
as  by  the  words  of  truth  and  love,  the  successor  who  treads 
fin  the  steps  of  Livingstone,  and  accomplishes  the  dis- 
covery he  aimed  at,  and  pointed  the  way  to,  will  assuredly 
V©ap  the  benefit."  ^ 


436  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

LIVINGSTONE    AND    STANLEY. 
A.D.  1871-1872. 

Mr.  Gordon  Bennett  sends  Stanley  in  search  of  Livingstone — Stanley  at 
Zanzibar — Starts  for  Ujiji — Reaches  Unyanyembe — Dangerous  illness — War 
between  Arabs  and  natives — Narrow  escape  of  Stanley — Approach  to  Ujiji 
— Meeting  with  Livingstone — Livingstone's  story — Stanley's  news — Living- 
stone's goods  and  men  at  Bagamoio — Stanley's  accounts  of  Livingstone- 
Refutation  of  foolish  and  calumnious  charges— They  go  to  the  north  of  the 
lake — Livingstone  resolves  not  to  go  home,  but  to  get  fresh  men  and  return 
to  the  sources — Letter  to  Agnes — to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear — The  travelers  go 
to  Unyanyembe — More  plundering  of  stores — Stanley  leaves  for  Zanzibar — 
Stanley's  bitterness  of  heart  at  parting — Livingstone's  intense  gratitude  to 
Stanley — He  intrusts  his  Journal  to  him,  and  commissions  him  to  send 
servants  and  stores  from  Zanzibar — Stanley's  journey  to  the  coast — Finds 
Search  Expedition  at  Bagamoio — Proceeds  to  England — Stanley's  reception 
—Unpleasant  feelings — Eclaircissement — England  grateful  to  Stanley. 

The  meeting  of  Stanley  and  Livingstone  at  Ujiji  was 
as  unKlrely  an  occurrence  as  could  have  happened,  and, 
along  with  many  of  the  earlier  events  in  Livingstone's  life, 
serves  to  show  how  wonderfully  an  Unseen  Hand  shaped 
and  guarded  his  path.  Neither  Stanley  nor  the  gentleman 
who  sent  him  had  any  personal  interest  in  Livingstone. 
Mr.  Bennett  admitted  frankly  that  he  was  moved  neither 
by  friendship  nor  philanthropy,  but  by  regard  to  his 
business  and  interest  as  a  journalist.  The  object  of  a 
journal  was  to  furnish  its  readers  with  the  news  which 
they  desired  to  know ;  the  readers  of  the  New  York  Herald 
desired  to  know  about  Livingstone ;  as  a  journalist,  it  was 
his  business  to  find  out  and  tell  them.  Mr.  Bennett 
determined  that,  cost  what  it  might,  he  would  find  out, 
And  give  the  news  to  his  readers.    These  were  the  very 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY.  437 

tinromantic  notions,  with  an  under-current  probably  of 
better  quality,  that  were  passing  through  his  mind  at 
Paris,  on  the  16th  October,  1869,  when  he  sent  a  telegram 
to  Madrid,  summoning  Henry  M.  Stanley,  one  of  the 
*^own  correspondents"  of  his  paper,  to  "come  to  Paris 
on  important  business."  On  his  arrival,  Mr.  Bennett 
asked  him  bluntly,  "Where  do  you  think  Livingstone 
is?"  The  correspondent  could  not  tell — could  not  even 
tell  whether  he  was  alive.  "  Well,"  said  Mr.  Bennett,  "  I 
think  he  is  alive,  and  that  he  may  be  found,  and  I  am 
going  to  send  you  to  find  him."  Mr.  Stanley  was  to  have 
whatever  money  should  be  found  necessary ;  only  he  was 
to  find  Livingstone.  It  is  very  mysterious  that  he  was  not 
to  go  straight  to  Africa — he  was  to  visit  Constantinople, 
Palestine,  and  Egypt  first.  Then,  from  India,  he  was  to 
go  to  Zanzibar;  get  into  the  interior,  and  find  him  if 
alive ;  obtain  all  possible  news  of  his  discoveries ;  and  if 
he  were  dead,  get  the  fact  fully  verified,  find  out  the  place 
of  his  burial,  and  try  to  obtain  possession  of  his  bones, 
that  they  might  find  a  resting-place  at  home. 

It  was  not  till  January,  1871,  that  Stanley  reached 
Zanzibar.  To  organize  an  expedition  into  the  interior 
was  no  easy  task  for  one  who  had  never  before  set  foot 
in  Africa.  To  lay  all  his  plans  without  divulging  his 
object  would,  perhaps,  have  been  more  difi&cult  if  it  had 
ever  entered  into  any  man's  head  to  connect  the  New 
York  Herald  with  a  search  for  Livingstone.  But  indomi- 
table vigor  and  perseverance  succeeded,  and  by  the  end 
of  February  and  beginning  of  March,  one  hundred  and 
ninety-two  persons  in  all  had  started  in  five  caravans 
at  short  intervals  from  Bagamoio  for  Lake  Tanganyika, 
two  white  men  being  of  the  party  besides  Stanley,  with 
horses,  donkeys,  bales,  boats,  boxes,  rifles,  etc.,  to  an  amount 
that  made  the  leader  of  the  expedition  ask  himself  how 
such  an  enormous  weight  of  material  could  ever  be  carried 
into  the  heart  of  Africa. 


438  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

The  ordinary  and  extraordinary  risks  and  troubles  of 
travel  in  these  parts  fell  to  Mr.  Stanley's  lot  in  unstinted 
abundance.  But  when  Unyanyembe  was  reached,  the 
half-way  station  to  Ujiji,  troubles  more  than  extraordinary 
befell.  First,  a  terrible  attack  of  fever  that  deprived  him 
of  his  senses  for  a  fortnight.  Then  came  a  worse  trouble. 
The  Arabs  were  at  war  with  a  chief  Mirambo,  and  Stanley 
and  his  men,  believing  they  would  help  to  restore  peace 
more  speedily,  sided  with  the  Arabs.  At  first  they  were 
apparently  victorious,  but  immediately  after,  part  of  the 
Arabs  were  attacked  on  their  way  home  by  Mirambo,  who 
lay  in  ambush  for  them,  and  were  defeated.  Great  con- 
sternation prevailed.  The  Arabs  retreated  in  panic,  leav- 
ing Stanley,  who  was  ill,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  foe. 
Stanley,  however,  managed  to  escape.  After  this  experience 
of  the  Arabs  in  war,  he  resolved  to  discontinue  his  alliance 
with  them.  As  the  usual  way  to  Ujiji  was  blocked, 
he  determined  to  try  a  route  more  to  the  south.  But  his 
people  had  forsaken  him.  One  of  his  two  English  com- 
panions was  dead,  the  other  was  sick  and  had  to  be  sent 
back.  Mirambo  was  still  threatening.  It  was  not  till  the 
20th  September  that  new  men  were  engaged  by  Stanley,  and 
his  party  were  ready  to  move. 

They  marched  slowly,  with  various  adventures  and 
difficulties,  until,  by  Mr.  Stanley's  reckoning,  on  the  10th 
November  (but  by  Livingstone's  earlier),  they  were  close 
on  Ujiji.  Their  approach  created  an  extraordinary  excite- 
ment. First  one  voice  saluted  them  in  English,  then 
another;  these  were  the  salutations  of  Livingstone's  ser- 
vants, Susi  and  Chuma.  By  and  by  the  Doctor  himself 
appeared.  "  As  I  advanced  slowly  toward  him,"  says  Mr. 
Stanley,  "  I  noticed  he  was  pale,  looked  wearied,  had  a 
gray  beard,  wore  a  bluish  cap  with  a  faded  gold  band 
round  it,  had  on  a  red-sleeved  waistcoat  and  a  pair  of 
gray  t^'eed  trousers.  I  would  have  run  to  him,  only  I 
was  a  coward  in  the  presence  of  such  a  mob, — ^would  have 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY.  489 

embraced  him,  only  he,  being  an  Englishman,  I  did  not 
know  how  he  -would  receive  me ;  so  I  did  what  cowardice 
and  false  pride  suggested  was  the  best  thing — walked 
deliberately  to  him,  took  off  my  hat  and  said,  *  Dr.  Living- 
stone, I  presume?'  *Yes,'  said  he,  with  a  kind  smile, 
lifting  his  cap  slightly.  I  replace  my  hat  on  my  head, 
and  he  puts  on  his  cap,  and  we  both  grasp  hands,  and 
then  I  say  aloud — 'I  thank  God,  Doctor,  I  have  been 
permitted  to  see  you.'  He  answered, '  I  feel  thankful  that 
I  am  here  to  welcome  you.'  *' 

The  conversation  began — ^but  Stanley  could  not  remem-. 
ber  what  it  was.  "  I  found  myself  gazing  at  him,  conning 
the  wonderful  man  at  whose  side  I  now  sat  in  Central 
Africa.  Every  hair  of  his  head  and  beard,  every  wrinkle 
of  his  face,  the  wanness  of  his  features,  and  the  slightly 
wearied  look  he  bore,  were  all  imparting  intelligence  to 
me — ^the  knowledge  I  craved  for  so  much  ever  since  I 
heard  the  words,  *  Take  what  you  want,  but  find  Living- 
stone.' What  I  saw  was  deeply  interesting  intelligence  to 
me  and  unvarnished  truth.  I  was  listening  and  reading 
at  the  same  time.  What  did  these  dumb  witnesses  relate 
to  me? 

"  Oh,  reader,  had  you  been  at  my  side  on  this  day  in 
Ujiji,  how  eloquently  could  be  told  the  nature  of  this 
man's  work?  Had  you  been  there  but  to  see  and  hear! 
His  lips  gave  me  the  details;  lips  that  never  lie.  I  cannot 
repeat  what  he  said ;  I  was  too  much  engrossed  to  take  my 
note-book  out,  and  begin  to  stenograph  his  story.  He  had 
so  much  to  say  that  he  began  at  the  end,  seemingly  obliv- 
ious of  the  fact  that  five  or  six  years  had  to  be  accounted 
for.  But  his  account  was  oozing  out ;  it  was  growing  fast 
into  grand  proportions — into  a  most  marvelous  history  of 
deeds." 

And  Stanley,  too,  iiaa  wonderful  things  to  tell  the 
Doctor.  "The  news,"  says  Livingstone,  "he  had  to  tell 
^ne  who  had  been  two  full  years  without  any  tidings  from 


440  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

Europe  made  my  whole  frame  thrill.  The  terrible  fate 
that  had  befallen  France,  the  telegraphic  cables  success- 
fully laid  in  the  Atlantic,  the  election  of  General  Grant, 
the  death  of  good  Lord  Clarendon,  my  constant  friend; 
the  proof  that  Her  Majesty's  Government  had  not  for- 
gotten me  in  voting  £1000  for  supplies,  and  many  other 
points  of  interest,  revived  emotions  that  had  lain  dormant 
in  Manyuema."  As  Stanley  went  on,  Livingstone  kept 
saying,  "You  have  brought  me  new  life — you  have 
brought  me  new  life." 

There  was  one  piece  of  news  brought  by  Stanley  to 
Livingstone  that  was  far  from  satisfactory.  At  Bagamoio, 
on  the  coast,  Stanley  had  found  a  caravan  with  supplies 
for  Livingstone  that  had  been  despatched  from  Zanzibar 
three  or  four  months  before,  the  men  in  charge  of  which 
had  been  lying  idle  there  all  that  time  on  the  pretext  that 
they  were  waiting  for  carriers.  A  letter-bag  was  also  lying 
at  Bagamoio,  although  several  caravans  for  Ujiji  had  left 
in  the  meantime.  On  hearing  that  the  Consul  at  Zanzibar, 
Dr.  Kirk,  was  coming  to  the  neighborhood  to  hunt,  the 
party  at  last  made  off.  Overtaking  them  at  Unyanyembe, 
Stanley  took  charge  of  Livingstone's  stores,  but  was  not 
able  to  bring  them  on ;  only  he  compelled  the  letter-carrier 
to  come  on  to  Ujiji  with  his  bag.  At  what  time,  but  for 
Stanley,  Livingstone  would  have  got  his  letters,  which  after 
all  were  a  year  on  the  way,  he  could  not  have  told.  For 
his  stores,  or  such  fragments  of  them  as  might  remain,  he 
had  afterward  to  trudge  all  the  way  to  Unyanyembe.  His 
letters  conveyed  the  news  that  Government  had  voted  a 
thousand  pounds  for  his  relief,  and  were  besides  to  pay 
him  a  salary.^  The  unpleasant  feeling  he  had  had  so  long 
as  to  his  treatment  by  Government  was  thus  at  last  some- 
what relieved.  But  the  goods  that  had  lain  in  neglect  at 
Bagamoio,  and  were  now  out  of  reach  at  Unyanyembe, 

*  The   intimation  of  salary  was  premature.     Livingstone  got  a  pension  of 
jC^OO  afterward,  which  lasted  only  for  a  year  and  a  half. 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY.  441 

represented  one-half  the  Government  grant,  and  would 
probably  be  squandered,  like  his  other  goods,  before  he 
could  reach  them. 

The  impression  made  on  Stanley  by  Livingstone  was 
remarkably  vivid,  and  the  portrait  drawn  by  the  American 
will  be  recognized  as  genuine  by  every  one  who  knows 
what  manner  of  man  Livingstone  was : 

"  I  defy  any  one  to  be  in  his  society  long  without  thoroughly  fathom- 
ing him,  for  in  him  there  is  no  guile,  and  what  is  apparent  on  the  sur- 
face is  the  thing  that  is  in  him.  .  ,  ,  Dr.  Livingstone  is  about  sixty 
years  old,  though  after  he  was  restored  to  health  he  looked  like  a  man 
who  had  not  passed  his  fiftieth  year.  His  hair  has  a  brownish  color 
yet,  but  is  here  and  there  streaked  with  gray  lines  over  the  temples ;  his 
beard  and  moustaches  are  very  gray.  His  eyes,  which  are  hazel,  are 
remarkably  bright;  he  has  a  sight  keen  as  a  hawk's.  His  teeth  alone 
indicate  the  weakness  of  age;  the  hard  fare  of  Lunda  has  made  havoc 
in  their  lines.  His  form,  which  soon  assumed  a  stoutish  appearance, 
is  a  little  over  the  ordinary  height,  with  the  slightest  possible  bow  in 
the  shoulders.  When  walking  he  has  a  firm  but  heavy  tread,  like  that 
of  an  overworked  or  fatigued  man.  He  is  accustomed  to  wear  a  naval 
cap  with  a  semicircular  peak,  by  which  he  has  been  identified  throughout 
Africa.  His  dress,  when  first  I  saw  him,  exhibited  traces  of  patching 
and  repairing,  but  was  scrupulously  clean. 

"I  was  led  to  believe  that  Livingstone  possessed  a  splenetic,  mis- 
anthropic temper;  some  have  said  that  he  is  garrulous;  that  he  is 
demented;  that  he  is  utterly  changed  from  the  David  Livingstone  whom 
people  knew  as  the  reverend  missionary ;  that  he  takes  no  notes  or  ob- 
servations but  such  as  those  which  no  other  person  could  read  but 
himself,  and  it  was  reported,  before  I  proceeded  to  Africa,  that  he  was 
married  to  an  African  princess. 

"  I  respectfully  beg  to  differ  with  all  and  each  of  the  above  statements. 
I  grant  he  is  not  an  angel ;  but  he  approaches  to  that  being  as  near  as 
the  nature  of  a  living  man  will  allow.  I  never  saw  any  spleen  or  mis- 
anthropy in  him  :  as  for  being  garrulous,  Dr.  Livingstone  is  quite  the 
reverse ;  he  is  reserved,  if  anything ;  and  to  the  man  who  says  Dr.  Liv- 
ingstone is  changed,  all  I  can  say  is,  that  he  never  could  have  known 
him,  for  it  is  notorious  that  the  Doctor  has  a  fund  of  quiet  humor, 
which  he  exhibits  at  all  times  when  he  is  among  friends."  [After 
repudiating  the  charge  as  to  his  notes  and  observations,  Mr.  Stanley 
continues  :]  "  As  to  the  report  of  his  African  marriage,  it  is  unnecessary 
to  say  more  than  that  it  is  untrue,  and  it  is  utterly  beneath  a  gentle- 


442  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

man  even  to  hint  at  such  a  thing  in  connection  with  the  name  of  Dr. 

Liringstone. 

"  You  may  take  any  point  in  Dr.  Livingstone's  character,  and  ana- 
lyze it  carefully,  and  I  would  challenge  any  man  to  find  a  fault  in  it. 
.  .  ,  .  His  gentleness  never  forsakes  him ;  his  hopefulness  never 
deserts  him.  No  harassing  anxieties,  distraction  of  mind,  long  separa- 
tion from  home  and  kindred,  can  make  him  complain.  He  thinks  *  all 
will  come  out  right  at  last ' ;  he  has  such  faith  in  the  goodness  of 
Providence.  The  sport  of  adverse  circumstances,  the  plaything  of  the 
miserable  beings  sent  to  him  from  Zanzibar — he  has  been  baffled  and 
worried,  even  almost  to  the  grave,  yet  he  will  not  desert  the  charge  im- 
posed upon  him  by  his  friend  Sir  Roderick  Murchison.  To  the  stern 
dictates  of  duty,  alone,  has  he  sacrificed  his  home  and  ease,  the  pleas- 
ures, refinements,  and  luxuries  of  civilized  life.  His  is  the  Spartan 
heroism,  the  inflexibility  of  the  Roman,  the  enduring  resolution  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon — never  to  relinquish  his  work,  though  his  heart  yearns 
tOT  home  ;  never  to  surrender  his  obligations  until  he  can  write  finis  to 
his  work. 

"There  is  a  good-natured  abandon  about  Livingstone  which  was  not 
lost  on  me.  Whenever  he  began  to  laugh,  there  was  a  contagion  about 
it  that  compelled  me  to  imitate  him.  It  was  such  a  laugh  as  Teufels- 
drockh's — a  laugh  of  the  whole  man  from  head  to  heel.  If  he  told  a 
story,  he  related  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  convince  one  of  its  truthfulness ; 
his  face  was  so  lit  up  by  the  sly  fun  it  contained,  that  I  was  sure  the 
story  was  worth  relating,  and  worth  listening  to. 

"  Another  thing  that  especially  attracted  my  attention  was  his  won- 
derfully retentive  memory.  If  we  remember  the  many  years  he  has 
spent  in  Africa,  deprived  of  books,  we  may  well  think  it  an  uncommon 
memory  that  can  recite  whole  poems  from  Byron,  Burns,  Tennyson, 
Longfellow,  Whittier,  and  Lowell.     .     .     . 

"  His  religion  is  not  of  the  theoretical  kind,  but  it  is  a  constant,  ear- 
nest, sincere  practice.  It  is  neither  demonstrative  nor  loud,  but  mani- 
fests itself  in  a  quiet,  practical  way,  and  is  always  at  work.  It  is  not 
aggressive,  which  sometimes  is  troublesome  if  not  impertinent.  In  him 
religion  exhibits  its  loveliest  features ;  it  governs  his  conduct  not  only 
toward  his  servants  but  toward  the  natives,  the  bigoted  Mohamme- 
dans, and  all  who  come  in  contact  with  him.  Without  it,  Livingstone, 
with  his  ardent  temperament,  his  enthusiasm,  his  high  spirit  and  cour- 
age, must  have  become  uncompanionable,  and  a  hard  master.  Religion 
has  tamed  him  and  made  him  a  Christian  gentleman ;  the  crude  and 
willful  have  been  refined  and  subdued;  religion  has  made  him  the  most 
companionable  of  men  and  indulgent  of  masters — a  man  whose  society 
JB  pleasurable  to  a  degree.    •     •    • 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY.  443 

**From  being  thwarted  and  hated  in  every  possible  way  by  the  Arabs 
and  half-castes  upon  his  first  arrival  at  Ujiji,  he  has,  through  his  uni- 
form kindness  and  mild,  pleasant  temper,  won  all  hearts.  I  observed 
that  universal  respect  was  paid  to  him.  Even  the  Mohammedans  never 
passed  his  house  without  calling  to  pay  their  compliments,  and  to  say, 
*The  blessing  of  God  rest  on  you  I'  Each  Sunday  morning  he  gathers 
his  little  flock  around  him,  and  reads  prayers  and  a  chapter  from  the 
Bible,  in  a  natural,  unafifected,  and  sincere  tone ;  and  afterward  delivers 
a  short  address  in  the  Kisawahili  language,  about  the  subject  read  to 
them,  which  is  listened  to  with  evident  interest  and  attention." 

Si  was  agreed  that  the  two  travelers  should  make  a  short 
excursion  to  the  north  end  of  Lake  Tanganyika,  to  ascer- 
tain whether  the  lake  had  an  outlet  there.  This  was  done, 
but  it  was  found  that  instead  of  flowing  out,  the  river  Lu- 
:dze  flowed  into  the  lake,  so  that  the  notion  that  the  lake 
discharged  itself  northward  turned  out  to  be  an  error. 
Meanwhile,  the  future  arrangements  of  Dr.  Livingstone 
were  matter  of  anxious  consideration.  One  thing  was  fixed 
and  certain  from  the  beginning:  Livingstone  would  not  go 
home  with  Stanley.  Much  though  his  heart  yearned  for 
home  and  family — all  the  more  that  he  had  just  learned 
that  his  son  Thomas  had  had  a  dangerous  accident, — and 
much  though  he  needed  to  recruit  his  strength  and  nurse 
his  ailments,  he  would  not  think  of  it  while  his  work  re- 
mained unfinished.  To  turn  back  to  those  dreary  sponges, 
sleep  in  those  flooded  plains,  encounter  anew  that  terrible 
pneumonia  which  was  "  worse  than  ten  fevers,"  or  that  dis- 
tressing haemorrhage  which  added  extreme  weakness  to 
extreme  agony — might  have  turned  any  heart ;  Livingstone 
jaever  flinched  from  it.  What  a  reception  awaited  him  if 
he  had  gone  home  to  England!  What  welcome  from 
friends  and  children,  what  triumphal  cheers  from  all  the 
great  Societies  and  savants,  what  honors  from  all  who  had 
honors  to  confer,  what  opportunity  of  renewing  efforts  to 
establish  missions  and  commerce,  and  to  suppress  the  slave 
traffic  I  Then  he  might  return  to  Africa  in  a  year,  and 
finish  his  work.    If  Livingstone  had  taken  this  course,  no 


444  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

whisper  would  have  been  heard  against  it.  The  nobility 
of  his  soul  never  rose  higher,  his  utter  abandonment  of 
self,  his  entire  devotion  to  duty,  his  right  honorable  deter- 
mination to  work  while  it  was  called  to-day  never  shone 
more  brightly  than  when  he  declined  all  Stanley's  en- 
treaties to  return  home,  and  set  his  face  steadfastly  to  go 
back  to  the  bogs  of  the  watershed.  He  writes  in  his  jour- 
nal :  "  My  daughter  Agnes  says,  *  Much  as  I  wish  you  to 
come  home,  I  had  rather  that  you  finished  your  work  to 
your  own  satisfaction,  than  return  merely  to  gratify  me.* 
Rightly  and  nobly  said,  my  darliug  Nannie ;  vanity  whis- 
pers pretty  loudly,  *  She  is  a  chip  of  the  old  block/  My 
blessing  on  her  and  all  the  rest." 

After  careful  consideration  of  various  plans,  it  was 
agreed  that  he  should  go  to  Unyanyembe,  accompanied  by 
Stanley,  who  would  supply  him  there  with  abundance  of 
goods,  and  who  would  then  hurry  down  to  the  coast,  organ- 
ize a  new  expedition  composed  of  fifty  or  sixty  faithful 
men  to  be  sent  on  to  Unyanyembe,  by  whom  Livingstone 
would  be  accompanied  back  to  Bangweolo  and  the  sources, 
and  then  to  Rua,  until  his  work  should  be  completed,  and 
he  might  go  home  in  peace. 

A  few  extracts  from  Livingstone's  letters  will  sho\/  us 
how  he  felt  at  this  remarkable  crisis.     To  Agnes : 

"  Tanganyika,  \^th  November^  1871. — [After  detailing  his  troubles  in 
Manjuema,  the  loss  of  all  his  goods  at  Ujiji,  and  the  generous  oflfer  of 
Syed  bin  Majid,  he  continues  :]  "Next  I  heard  of  an  Englishman  being 
at  Unyamyembe  with  boats,  etc.,  but  who  he  was,  none  could  tell.  At 
last,  one  of  my  people  came  running  out  of  breath  and  shouted,  '  An 
Englishman  coming  1'  and  off  he  darted  back  again  to  meet  him.  An 
American  flag  at  the  head  of  a  large  caravan  showed  the  nationality  of 
the  stranger.  Baths,  tents,  saddles,  big  kettles,  showed  that  he  was  not 
a  poor  Lazarus  like  me.  He  turned  out  to  be  Henry  M.  Stanley,  trav- 
eling correspop'^ent  of  the  New  York  Herald,  sent  specially  to  find  out 
if  I  were  really  alive,  and,  if  dead,  to  bring  home  my  bones.  He  had 
brought  abundance  of  goods  at  great  expense,  but  the  fighting  referred 
to  delayed  him,  and  he  had  to  leave  a  great  part  at  Unyamyembe.  To 
all  he  had  I  was  made  free.     [JlH  a  later  letter,  Livingstone  says;  'He 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY.  i45 

laid  all  he  had  at  my  service,  divided  his  clothes  into  two  heaps,  and 
pressed  one  heap  upon  me;  then  his  medicine-chest;  then  his  goods 
and  everything  he  had,  and  to  coax  my  appetite,  often  cooked  dainty 
dishes  with  his  own  hand.']  He  came  with  the  true  American  charac- 
teristic generosity.  The  tears  often  started  into  my  eyes  on  every  fresh 
proof  of  kindness.  My  appetite  returned,  and  I  ate  three  or  four  times 
a  day,  instead  of  scanty  meals  morning  and  evening.  I  soon  felt  strong, 
and  never  wearied  with  the  strange  news  of  Europe  and  America  he  told. 
The  tumble  down  of  the  French  Empire  was  like  a  dream.     .    .     ." 

A  long  letter  to  his  friend  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  and  Mr. 
Mann,  of  the  same  date,  goes  over  his  travels  in  Manyuema, 
his  many  disasters,  and  then  his  wonderful  meeting  with 
Mr.  Stanley  at  Ujiji.  Speaking  of  the  unwillingness  of  the 
natives  to  believe  in  the  true  purpose  of  his  journey,  he 
says :  "  They  all  treat  me  with  respect,  and  are  very  much 
afraid  of  being  written  against;  but  they  consider  the 
sources  of  the  Nile  to  be  a  sham ;  the  true  object  of  my 
being  sent  is  to  see  their  odious  system  of  slaving,  and  if 
indeed  my  disclosures  should  le^-  .3  lo  the  suppression  of  the  East 
Coast  slave-trade,  I  would  esteem  that  as  afar  greater  feat  than 
(he  discovery  of  all  the  sources  together.  It  is  awful,  but  I 
cannot  speak  of  the  slaving  for  fear  of  appearing  guilty  of 
exaggerating.  It  is  not  trading ;  it  is  murdering  for  cap- 
tives to  be  made  into  slaves."  His  account  of  himself  in 
the  journey  from  Nyangwe  is  dreadful :  "  I  was  near  a 
fourth  lake  on  this  central  line,  and  only  eighty  miles  from 
Lake  Lincoln  on  our  west,  in  fact  almost  in  sight  of  the  geo- 
graphical end  of  my  mission,  when  I  was  forced  to  return 
[through  the  misconduct  of  his  men]  between  400  and  500 
miles.  A  sore  heart,  made  still  sorer  by  the  sad  scenes  I  had 
seen  of  man's  inhumanity  to  man,  made  this  march  a  terrible 
tramp — the  sun  vertical,  and  the  sore  heat  reacting  on  the 
physical  frame.  I  was  in  pain  nearly  every  step  of  the  way, 
and  arrived  a  mere  ruckle  of  bones  to  find  myself  destitute." 
In  speaking  of  the  impression  made  by  Mr.  Stanley's 
kindness :  "  I  am  as  cold  and  non-demonstrative  as  we 
islanders  are  reputed  to  be,  but  this  kindness  was  over- 


446  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

whelming.  Here  was  the  good  Samaritan  and  no  mistake. 
Never  was  I  more  hard  pressed;  never  was  help  more  wel- 
come." 

During  thirteen  months  Stanley  received  no  fewer  than 
ten  parcels  of  letters  and  papers  sent  up  by  Mr.  Webb, 
American  Consul  at  Zanzibar,  while  Livingstone  received 
but  one.  This  was  an  additional  ground  for  faith  in  the 
efficiency  of  Stanley's  arrangements. 

The  journey  to  Unyanyembe  was  somewhat  delayed  by 
an  attack  of  fever  which  Stanley  had  at  Ujiji,  and  it  was 
not  till  the  27th  December  that  the  travelers  set  out.  On 
the  way  Stanley  heard  of  the  death  of  his  English  attend- 
ant Shaw,  whom  he  had  left  unwell.  On  the  18th  of 
February,  1872,  they  reached  Unyanyembe,  where  a  new 
chapter  of  the  old  history  unfolded  itself.  The  survivor 
of  two  head-men  employed  by  Ludha  Damji  had  been 
plundering  Livingstone's  stores,  and  had  broken  open 
the  lock  of  Mr.  Stanley's  store-room  and  plundered  him 
likewise.  Notwithstanding,  Mr.  Stanley  was  able  to  give 
Livingstone  a  large  amount  of  calico,  beads>  brass  wire, 
copper  sheets,  a  tent,  boat,  bath,  cooking-pots,  medicine- 
chest,  tools,  books,  paper,  medicines,  cartridges,  and  shot. 
This,  with  four  flannel  shirts  that  had  come  from  Agnes, 
and  two  pairs  of  boots,  gave  him  the  feeling  of  being  quite 
set  up. 

On  the  14th  of  March  Mr.  Stanley  left  Livingstone  for 
Zanzibar,  having  received  from  him  a  commission  to  send 
him  up  fifty  trusty  men,  and  some  additional  stores.  Mr. 
Stanley  had  authority  to  draw  from  Dr.  Kirk  the  remain- 
ing half  of  the  Government  grant,  but  lest  it  should  have 
been  expended,  he  was  furnished  with  a  cheque  for  5000 
rupees  on  Dr.  Livingstone's  agents  at  Bombay.  He  was 
likewise  intrusted  with  a  large  folio  ms.  volume  containing 
his  journals  from  his  arrival  at  Zanzibar,  28th  January, 
1866,  to  February  20,  1872,  written  out  with  all  his  charac- 
teristic care   and   beauty.     Another   instruction  had  been 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY.  44T 

laid  upon  him.  If  he  should  find  another  set  of  slaves  on 
the  way  to  him,  he  was  to  send  them  back,  for  Living- 
stone would  on  no  account  expose  himself  anew  to  the 
misery,  risk,  and  disappointment  he  had  experienced  from 
the  kind  of  men  that  had  compelled  him  to  turn  back  at 
Nyangwe. 

Dr.  Livingstone^s  last  act  before  Mr.  Stanley  left  him 
was  to  write  his  letters — twenty  for  Great  Britain,  six  for 
Bombay,  two  for  New  York,  and  one  for  Zanzibar.  The 
two  for  New  York  were  for  Mr.  Bennett  of  the  New  York 
Herald,  by  whom  Stanley  had  been  sent  to  Africa. 

Mr.  Stanley  has  freely  unfolded  to  us  the  bitterness  of 
his  heart  in  parting  from  Livingstone.  "  My  days  seem 
to  have  been  spent  in  an  Elysian  field;  otherwise,  why 
should  I  so  keenly  regret  the  near  approach  of  the  part- 
ing hour  ?  Have  I  not  been  battered  by  successive  fevers, 
prostrate  with  agony  day  after  day  lately?  Have  I  not 
raved  and  stormed  in  madness  ?  Have  I  not  clenched  my 
fists  in  fury,  and  fought  with  the  wild  strength  of  despair 
when  in  delirium  ?  Yet,  I  regret  to  surrender  the  pleasure 
I  have  felt  in  this  man's  society,  though  so  dearly  pur- 
chased. .  .  .  March  lAth. — We  had  a  sad  breakfast  to- 
gether. I  could  not  eat,  my  heart  was  too  full;  neither 
did  my  companion  seem  to  have  an  appetite.  We  found 
something  to  do  which  kept  us  longer  together.  At  eight 
o'clock  I  was  not  gone,  and  I  had  thought  to  have  been 
ofi"  at  five  A.M.  .  .  .  We  walked  side  by  side ;  the  men 
lifted  their  voices  in  a  song.  I  took  long  looks  at  Living- 
stone, to  impress  his  features  thoroughly  on  my  memory. 
.  .  .  '  Now,  my  dear  Doctor,  the  best  friends  must  part. 
You  have  come  far  enough;  let  me  beg  of  you  to  turn 
back.'  'Well,'  Livingstone  replied,  'I  will  say  this  to  you : 
You  have  done  what  few  men  could  do, — far  better  than 
some  great  travelers  I  know.  And  I  am  grateful  to  you 
for  what  you  have  done  for  me.  God  guide  you  safe 
home,  and  bless  you,  my  friend.' — ^'And  may  Grod  bring 


448  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

you  safe  back  to  us  all,  my  dear  friena.  Farewelll*— 
'Farewell  T  .  .  .  My  friendly  reader,  I  wrote  the  above 
extracts  in  my  Diary  on  the  evening  of  each  day.  I  look 
at  them  now  after  six  months  have  passed  away ;  yet  I  am 
not  ashamed  of  them ;  my  eyes  feel  somewhat  dimmed  at 
the  recollection  of  the  parting.  I  dared  not  erase,  nor 
modify  what  I  had  penned,  while  my  feelings  were  strong. 
God  grant  that  if  ever  you  take  to  traveling  in  Africa  you 
will  get  as  noble  and  true  a  man  for  your  companion  as 
David  Livingstone !  For  four  months  and  four  days  I  lived 
with  him  in  the  same  house,  or  in  the  same  boat,  or  in  the 
same  tent,  and  I  never  found  a  fault  in  him.  I  am  a  man 
of  a  quick  temper,  and  often  without  sufficient  cause,  I  dare- 
say, nave  broken  the  ties  of  friendship ;  but  with  Living- 
stone I  never  had  cause  for  resentment,  but  each  day's  life 
with  him  added  to  my  admiration  for  him." 

If  Stanley's  feeling  for  Livingstone  was  thus  at  the 
warmest  temperature,  Livingstone's  sense  of  the  service 
done  to  him  by  Stanley  was  equally  unqualified.  What- 
ever else  he  might  be  or  might  not  be,  he  had  proved  a 
true  friend  to  him.  He  had  risked  his  life  in  the  attempt 
to  reach  him,  had  been  delighted  to  share  with  him  every 
comfort  he  possessed,  and  to  leave  with  him  ample  stores 
of  all  that  might  be  useful  to  him  in  his  effort  to  finish  his 
work.  "Whoever  may  have  been  to  blame  for  it,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  Livingstone  had  been  afflicted  for  years,  and 
latterly  worried  almost  to  death,  by  the  inefficency  and 
worthlessness  of  the  men  sent  to  serve  him.  In  Stanley 
he  found  one  whom  he  could  trust  implicitly  to  do  every- 
thing that  zeal  and  energy  could  contrive  in  order  to  find 
him  efficient  men  and  otherwise  carry  out  his  plans.  It 
was  Stanley  therefore  whom  he  commissioned  to  send  him 
up  men  from  Zanzibar.  It  was  Stanley  to  whom  he  in- 
trusted his  Journal  and  other  documents.  Stanley  had 
been  his  confidental  friend  for  four  months — the  only 
white  man  to  whom  he  talked  for  six  years.    It  was  matter 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY.  449 

of  life  and  death  to  Livingstone  to  be  supplied  for  this 
concluding  piece  of  work  far  better  than  he  had  been  for 
years  back.  What  man  in  his  senses  would  have  failed 
in  these  circumstances  to  avail  himself  to  the  utmost  of 
the  services  of  one  who  had  shown  himself  so  efficient; 
would  have  put  him  aside  to  fall  back  on  others,  albeit 
his  own  countrymen,  who,  with  all  their  good-will,  had 
not  been  able  to  save  him  from  robbery,  beggary,  and  a 
half-broken  heart. 

Stanley's  journey  from  Unyanyembe  to  Bagamoio  was  a 
perpetual  struggle  against  hostile  natives,  flooded  roads, 
elush,  mire,  and  water,  roaring  torrents,  ants  and  mos- 
quitos,  or,  as  he  described  it,  the  ten  plagues  of  Egypt. 
On  his  reaching  Bagamoio,  on  the  6th  May,  he  found  a 
new  surprise.  A  white  man  dressed  in  flannels  and 
helmet  appeared,  and  as  he  met  Stanley  congratulated 
him  on  his  splendid  success.  It  was  Lieutenant  Henn, 
K.N.,  a  member  of  the  Search  Expedition  which  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  and  others  had  sent  out  to  look  for 
Livingstone.  The  resolution  to  organize  such  an  Expe- 
dition was  taken  after  news  had  come  to  England  of  the 
war  between  the  Arabs  and  the  natives  at  Unyanyembe, 
stopping  the  communication  with  Ujiji,  and  rendering  it 
impossible,  as  it  was  thought,  for  Mr.  Stanley  to  get  to 
Livingstone's  relief.  The  Expedition  had  been  placed 
under  command  of  Lieutenant  Dawson,  R.N.,  with  Lieu- 
tenant Llenn  as  second,  and  was  joined  by  the  Rev. 
Charles  New,  a  Missionary  from  Mombasa,  and  Mr.  W. 
Oswell  Livingstone,  youngest  son  of  the  Doctor.  Stanley's 
arrival  at  Bagamoio  had  been  preceded  by  that  of  some 
of  his  men,  who  brought  the  news  that  Livingstone  had 
been  found  and  relieved.  On  hearing  this,  Lieutenant 
Dawson  hurried  to  Zanzibar  to  see  Dr.  Kirk,  and  resigned 
his  command.  Lieutenant  Henn  soon  after  followed  his 
example  by  resigning  too.  They  thought  that  as  Dr.  Liv- 
ingstone had  been  relieved  there  was  no  need  for  their 


450  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

going  on.  Mr.  New  likewise  declined  to  proceed.  Mr.  W. 
Oswell  Livingstone  was  thus  left  alone,  at  first  full  of  the 
determination  to  go  on  to  his  father  with  the  men  whom 
Stanley  was  providing;  but  owing  to  the  state  of  his 
health,  and  under  the  advice  of  Dr.  Kirk,  he,  too,  declined 
to  accompany  the  Expedition,  so  that  the  men  from  Zan- 
zibar proceeded  to  Unyanyembe  alone. 

On  the  29th  of  May,  Stanley,  with  Messrs.  Henn,  Living- 
stone, New,  and  Morgan,  departed  in  the  "Africa"  from 
Zanzibar,  and  in  due  time  reached  Europe. 

It  was  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  an  enterprise  so 
beautiful  and  so  entirely  successful  as  Mr.  Stanley's 
should  have  been  in  some  degree  marred  by  ebullitions 
of  feeling  little  in  harmony  with  the  very  joyous  event. 
The  leaders  of  the  English  Search  Expedition  and  their 
friends  felt,  as  they  expressed  it,  that  the  wind  had  been 
taken  out  of  their  sails.  They  could  not  but  rejoice 
that  Livingstone  had  been  found  and  relieved,  but  it 
was  a  bitter  thought  thao  ^^""ey  had  had  no  hand  in  the 
process.  It  was  galling  to  ii^Ar  feelings  as  Englishmen 
that  the  brilliant  service  had  been  done  by  a  stranger,  a 
newspaper  correspondent,  a  citizen  of  another  country. 
On  a  small  scale  that  spirit  of  national  jealousy  showed 
itself,  which  on  a  wider  arena  has  sometimes  endangered 
the  relations  of  England  and  America. 

When  Stanley  reached  England,  it  was  not  to  be  over- 
whelmed with  gratitude.  At  first  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  received  him  coldly.  Instead  of  his  finding  Liv- 
ingstone, it  was  surmised  that  Livingstone  had  found  him. 
Strange  things  were  said  of  him  at  the  British  Association 
at  Brighton.  The  daily  press  actually  challenged  his 
truthfulness ;  some  of  the  newspapers  afiected  to  treat  his 
whole  story  as  a  myth.  Stanley  says  frankly  that  this  re- 
ception gave  a  tone  of  bitterness  to  his  book — How  I  Found 
Livingstone — which  it  would  not  have  had  if  he  had  under- 
stood the  real  state  of  things.    But  the  heart  of  the  natioQ 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY,  451 

was  sound ;  the  people  believed  in  Stanley,  and  appreciated 
his  service.  At  last  the  mists  cleared  away,  and  England 
acknowledged  its  debt  to  the  American.  The  Geograph- 
ical Society  gave  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  "  with  a 
warmth  and  generosity  never  to  be  forgotten."  The  Pres- 
ident apologized  for  the  words  of  suspicion  he  had  previ- 
ously used.  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  presented  Stanley  with 
a  special  token  of  her  regard.  Unhappily,  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  the  affair,  wounds  had  been  inflicted  which  are 
not  likely  ever  to  be  wholly  healed.  Words  were  spoken 
on  both  sides  which  cannot  be  recalled.  But  the  great  fact 
remains,  and  will  be  written  on  the  page  of  history,  that 
Stanley  did  a  noble  service  to  Livingstone,  earning  therebj 
the  gratitude  of  England  and  of  the  civilized  world. 


462  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO. 

A.D.  1872-73. 

livingstone's  long  wait  at  Unyanyembe — His  plan  of  operations — His  fifty- 
ninth  birthday — Renewal  of  self-dedication — Letters  to  Agnes — to  JV^ew 
York  Herald — Hardness  of  the  African  battle — Waverings  of  judgment, 
whether  Lualaba  was  the  Nile  or  the  Congo — Extracts  from  Journal — Gleams 
of  humor — Natural  history — His  distress  on  hearing  of  the  death  of  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison — Thoughts  on  mission- work — Arrival  of  his  escort — His 
happiness  in  his  new  men — He  starts  from  Unyanyembe — Illness — Great 
amount  of  rain — Near  Bangweolo — Incessant  moisture — Flowers  of  the 
forest — Taking  of  observations  regularly  prosecuted — Dreadful  state  of  the 
country  from  rain — Hunger — Furious  attack  of  ants — Greatness  of  Living- 
stone's sufferings — Letters  to  Sir  Thomas  Maclear,  Mr.  Young,  his  brother, 
and  Agnes — His  sixtieth  birthday — Great  weakness  in  April — Sunday  serv- 
ices and  observations  continued — Increasing  illness — The  end  approaching — 
X^ast  written  words — Last  day  of  his  travels — He  reaches  Chitambo's  village, 
in  Ilala — Is  found  on  his  knees  dead,  on  morning  of  1st  May — Courage  and 
affection  of  his  attendants — His  body  embalmed — Carried  toward  shore — 
Dangers  and  sufferings  during  the  march — The  party  meet  Lieutenant  Cam- 
eron at  Unyanyembe — Determine  to  go  on — Ruse  at  Kasekdra — Death  of 
Dr.  Dillon — The  party  reach  Bagamoio,  and  the  remains  are  placed  on  board 
a  cruiser — The  Search  Expeditions  from  England — to  East  Coast  under  Cam- 
eron— to  West  Coast  under  Grandy — Explanation  of  Expeditions  by  Sir 
Henry  Rawlinson — Livingstone's  remains  brought  to  England — Examined 
by  Sir  W.  Fergusson  and  others — Buried  in  Westminster  Abbey — Inscription 
on  slab — Livingstone's  wish  for  a  forest  grave — Lines  from  Punch — Tributes 
to  his  memory — Sir  Bartle  Frere — The  Lancet — Lord  Polwarth — Florence 
Nightingale. 

When  Stanley  left  Livingstone  at  Unyanyembe  there 
was  nothing  for  the  latter  but  to  wait  there  until  the  men 
should  come  to  him  who  were  to  be  sent  up  from  Zanzibar. 
Stanley  left  on  the  14th  March ;  Livingstone  calculated 
that  he  would  reach  Zanzibar  on  the  1st  May,  that  his  men 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANOWEOLO.      453 

would  be  ready  to  start  about  the  22d  May,  and  that  they 
ought  to  arrive  at  Unyanyembe  on  the  10th  or  15th  July. 
In  reality,  Stanley  did  not  reach  Bagamoio  till  the  6th  May, 
the  men  were  sent  off  about  the  25th,  and  they  reached 
Unyanyembe  about  the  9th  August.  A  month  more  than 
had  been  counted  on  had  to  be  spent  at  Unyanyembe,  and 
this  delay  was  all  the  more  trying  because  it  brought  the 
traveler  nearer  to  the  rainy  season. 

The  intention  of  Dr.  Livingstone,  when  the  men  should 
come,  was  to  strike  south  by  Ufipa,  go  round  Tanganyika, 
then  cross  the  Chambeze,  and  bear  away  along  the  south- 
ern shore  of  Bangweolo,  straight  west  to  the  ancient  foun- 
tains ;  from  them  in  eight  days  to  Katanga  copper  mines ; 
from  Katanga,  in  ten  days,  northeast  to  the  great  under- 
ground excavations,  and  back  again  to  Katanga;  from 
which  N.N.w.  twelve  days  to  the  head  of  Lake  Lincoln. 
"  There  I  hope  devoutly,"  he  writes  to  his  daughter,  "  to 
thank  the  Lord  of  all,  and  turn  my  face  along  Lake  Kam- 
olondo,  and  over  Lualaba,  Tanganyika,  Ujiji,  and  home." 

His  stay  at  Unyanyembe  was  a  somewhat  dreary  one ; 
there  was  little  to  do  and  little  k)  interest  him.  Five  days 
after  Stanley  left  him  occurred  his  fifty-ninth  birthday. 
How  his  soul  was  exercised  appears  from  the  renewal  of 
his  self-dedication  recorded  in  his  Journal ; 

"  19^  March,  Birthday. — My  Jesus,  vaj  King,  vaj  Life,  mv  All  j  I 
again  dedicate  my  whole  self  to  Thee.  Accept  me,  and  grant,  0  gra- 
cious Father,  that  ere  this  year  is  gone  I  may  finish  my  task.  In  Jeaus' 
Bame  I  ask  it.     Amen.     So  let  it  be.  David  Livingstone." 

Frequent  letters  were  written  to  his  daughter  from  Un- 
yanyembe, and  they  dwelt  a  good  deal  upon  his  diiScultie-s, 
the  treacherous  way  in  which  he  had  been  treated,  and  the 
indescribable  toil  and  suffering  which  had  been  the  result. 
He  said  that  in  complaining  to  Dr.  Kirk  of  the  men  whom 
he  had  employed,  and  the  disgraceful  use  they  had  made 
of  his  (Kirk's)  name,  he  never  meant  to  charge  him  with 


454  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

being  the  author  of  their  crimes,  and  it  never  occurred  to 
him  to  say  to  Kirk,  "  I  don't  believe  you  to  be  the  traitor 
they  imply ;"  but  Kirk  took  his  complaint  in  high  dudgeon 
as  a  covert  attack  upon  himself,  and  did  not  act  toward 
him  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  considering  what  he  owed 
him.  His  cordial  and  uniform  testimony  of  Stanley  was, 
"  altogether  he  has  behaved  right  nobly." 

On  the  1st  May  he  finished  a  letter  for  the  New  York 
Herald,  and  asked  God's  blessing  on  it.  It  contained  the 
memorable  words  afterward  inscribed  on  the  stone  to  his 
memory  in  Westminster  Abbey  :  "  All  I  can  add  in  my 
loneliness  is,  may  Heaven's  rich  blessing  come  down  on 
every  one — American,  English,  or  Turk — who  will  help  to 
heal  the  open  sore  of  the  world."  It  happened  that  the 
words  were  written  precisely  a  year  before  his  death. 

Amid  the  universal  darkness  around  him,  the  universal 
ignorance  of  God  and  of  the  grace  and  love  of  Jesus  Christ, 
it  was  hard  to  believe  that  Africa  should  ever  be  won.  He 
had  to  strengthen  his  faith  amid  this  universal  desolation. 
We  read  in  his  Journal: 

"  13/A  May. — He  will  keep  his  word — the  gracious  One,  full  of  grace 
and  truth  ;  no  doubt  of  it.  He  said :  "  Him  that  cometh  unto  me,  I  will 
in  no  wise  cast  out ;'  and  '  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  I  will 
give  it.'  He  will  keep  his  word  :  then  I  can  come  and  humbly  present 
my  petition,  and  it  will  be  all  right.  Doubt  is  here  inadmissible, 
surely.  D.  L." 

His  mind  ruminates  on  the  river  system  of  the  country 
and  the  probability  of  his  being  in  error : 

"21st  May. — I  wish  I  had  some  of  the  assurance  possessed  by  others, 
but  I  am  oppressed  with  the  apprehension  that,  after  all,  it  may  turn 
out  that  I  have  been  following  the  Congo ;  and  who  would  risk  being 
put  into  a  cannibal  pot,  and  converted  into  black  man  for  itV 

"  Zlst  May. — In  reference  to  this  Nile  source,  I  have  been  kept  in  per- 
petual doubt  and  perplexity.  I  know  too  much  to  be  positive.  Great 
Lualaba,  or  Lualubba,  as  Manyuema  say,  may  turn  out  to  be  the  Congo, 
and  Nile  a  shorter  river  after  all.^     The  fountains  flowing  north  and 

^  From  false  punctuation,  this  passage  is  unintelligible  in  the  Last  j^ournak^ 
voL  ii.  p.  193. 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO.       455 

south  seem  in  favor  of  its  being  the  Nile.     Great  westing  is  in  favor  of 
the  Congo." 

"24iA  June. — The  medical  education  has  led  me  to  a  continual  tend- 
ency to  suspend  the  judgment.  What  a  state  of  blessedness  it  would  have 
been,  had  I  possessed  the  dead  certainty  of  the  homoeopathic  persuasion, 
and  as  soon  as  I  found  the  Lakes  Bangweolo,  Moero,  and  Kamolondo 
pouring  out  their  waters  down  the  great  central  valley,  bellowed  out, 

*  Hurrah  1  Eureka  !'  and  gone  home  in  firm  and  honest  belief  that  I  had 
settled  it,  and  no  mistake.      Instead  of  that,  I  am  even  now  not  at  all 

*  cock-sure '  that  I  have  not  been  following  down  what  may  after  all  be 
the  Congo. 

We  now  know  that  this  was  just  what  he  had  heen  doing. 
But  we  honor  him  all  the  more  for  the  diffidence  that  would 
not  adopt  a  conclusion  while  any  part  of  the  evidence  was 
wanting,  and  that  led  him  to  encounter  unexampled  risks 
and  hardships  before  he  would  affirm  his  favorite  view  as  a 
fact.  The  moral  lesson  thus  enforced  is  invaluable.  We 
are  almost  thankful  that  Livingstone  never  got  his  doubts 
solved,  it  would  have  been  such  a  disappointment ;  even 
had  he  known  that  in  all  time  coming  the  great  stream 
which  had  cast  on  him  such  a  resistless  spell  would  be 
known  as  the  Livingstone  Eiver,  and  would  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  his  life  and  his  efforts  for  the  good  of  Africa. 

Occasionally  his  Journal  gives  a  gleam  of  humor :  "  l^th 
June. — The  Ptolemaic  map  defines  people  according  to 
their  food, — the  Elephantophagi,  the  Struthiophagi,  the 
Ichthiophagi,  and  the  Anthropophagi.  If  we  followed  the 
same  sort  of  classification,  our  definition  would  be  by  the 
drink,  thus :  the  tribe  of  stout-guzzlers,  the  roaring  potheen- 
fuddlers,  the  whisky-fishoid-drinkers,  the  vin-ordinaire  bib- 
bers, the  lager-beer-swillers,  and  an  outlying  tribe  of  the 
brandy  cocktail  persuasion." 

Natural  History  furnishes  an  unfailing  interest :  "  12ih 
June. — Why dahs,  though  full-fledged,  still  gladly  take  a  feed 
from  their  dam,  putting  down  the  breast  to  the  ground,  and 
cocking  up  the  bill  and  chirruping  in  the  most  engaging 
manner  and  wiw^aing  way  they  know.    She  still  gives  them 


456  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

SL  little,  but  administers  a  friendly  shove-off  too.  They  all 
pick  up  feathers  or  grass,  and  hop  from  side  to  side  of  their 
mates,  as  if  saying,  '  Come,  let  us  play  at  making  little 
houses/  The  wagtail  has  shaken  her  young  quite  off,  and 
has  a  new  nest.  She  warbles  prettily,  very  much  like  a 
canary,  and  is  extremely  active  in  catching  flies,  but  eats 
crumbs  of  bread-and-milk  too.  Sun-birds  visit  the  pome- 
granate flowers,  and  eat  insects  therein  too,  as  well  as  nec- 
tar. The  young  whydah  birds  crouch  closely  together  at 
night  for  heat.  They  look  like  a  woolly  ball  on  a  branch. 
By  day  they  engage  in  pairing  and  coaxing  each  other. 
They  come  to  the  same  twig  every  night.  Like  children, 
they  try  and  lift  heavy  weights  of  feathers  above  their 
strength." 

On  3d  July  a  very  sad  entry  occurs :  '^Received  a  note 
from  Oswell,  written  in  April  last,  containing  the  sad  in- 
telligence of  Sir  Roderick's  departure  from  among  us. 
Alas!  alas!  this  is  the  only  time  in  my  life  I  ever  felt 
inaiined  to  use  the  word,  and  it  bespeaks  a  sore  heart ; 
the  best  friend  I  ever  had, — true,  warm,  and  abiding, — he 
loved  me  more  than  I  deserved;  he  looks  down  on  me 
still."  This  entry  indicates  extraordinary  depth  of  emo- 
tion. Sir  Roderick  exercised  a  kind  of  spell  on  Living- 
stone. Respect  for  him  was  one  of  the  subordinate 
motives  that  induced  him  to  undertake  this  journey. 
The  hope  of  giving  him  satisfaction  was  one  of  the  sub- 
ordinate rewards  to  which  he  looked  forward.  His  death 
was  to  Livingstone  a  kind  of  scientific  widowhood,  and 
must  have  deprived  him  of  a  great  spring  to  exertion  in 
this  last  wandering.  On  Sir  Roderick's  part  the  affection 
for  him  was  very  great.  "  Looking  back,"  says  his 
biographer,  Professor  Geikie,  "  upon  his  scientific  career 
when  not  far  from  its  close,  Murchison  found  no  part  of 
it  which  brought  more  pleasing  recollections  than  the 
support  he  had  given  to  African  explorers — Speke,  Grant, 
and  notably  Livingstone.      *  I  rejoice/  he   said,  *  in   the 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO,       457 

steadfast  tenacity  with  which  I  have  upheld  my  confidence 
in  the  ultimate  success  of  the  last-named  of  these  brave 
men.  In  fact,  it  was  the  confidence  I  placed  in  the  un- 
dying vigor  of  my  dear  friend  Livingstone  which  has 
sustained  me  in  the  hope  that  I  might  live  to  enjoy 
the  supreme  delight  of  welcoming  him  back  to  his  own 
country.'  But  that  consummation  was  not  to  be.  He 
himself  was  gathered  to  his  rest  just  six  days  before 
Stanley  brought  news  and  relief  to  the  forlorn  traveler 
on  Lake  Tanganyika.  And  Livingstone,  while  still  in 
pursuit  of  his  quest,  and  within  ten  months  of  his  death, 
learned  in  the  heart  of  Africa  the  tidings  which  he 
chronicled  in  his  journal."^ 

At  other  times  he  is  ruminating  on  mission-work : 

"  \Oth  July, — No  great  difficulty  would  be  encountered  in  establish- 
ing a  Christian  mission  a  hundred  miles  or  so  from  the  East  Coast. 
•  .  .  To  the  natives  the  chief  attention  of  the  mission  should  be 
directed.  It  would  not  be  desirable  or  advisable  to  refuse  explanation 
to  others ;  but  I  have  avoided  giving  offense  to  intelligent  Arabs,  who, 
having  pressed  me,  asking  if  I  believed  in  Mohamed,  by  saying,  'No, 
I  do  not ;  I  am  a  child  of  Jesus  bin  Miriam,'  avoiding  anything  offen- 
sive in  my  tone,  and  often  adding  that  Mohamed  found  their  fore- 
fathers bowing  down  to  trees  and  stones,  and  did  good  to  them  by 
forbidding  idolatry,  and  teaching  the  worship  of  the  only  One  G-od. 
This  they  all  know,  and  it  pleases  them  to  have  it  recognized.  It 
might  be  good  policy  to  hire  a  respectable  Arab  to  engage  free  porters, 
and  conduct  the  mission  to  the  country  chosen,  and  obtain  permission 
from  the  chief  to  build  temporary  houses.  ...  A  couple  of  Euro- 
peans beginning  and  carrying  on  a  mission  without  a  staff  of  foreign 
attendants,  implies  coarse  country  fare,  it  is  true ;  but  this  would  be 
nothing  to  those  who  at  home  amuse  themselves  with  vigils,  fasting, 
etc.  A  great  deal  of  power  is  thus  lost  in  the  Church.  Fastings  and 
vigils,  without  a  special  object  in  view,  are  time  run  to  waste.  They 
are  made  to  minister  to  a  sort  of  self-gratification,  instead  of  being 
turned  to  account  for  the  good  of  others.  They  are  like  groaning  in 
sickness :  some  people  amuse  themselves  when  ill  with  continuous 
moaning.  The  forty  days  of  Lent  might  be  annually  spent  in  visiting 
adjacent  tribes,  and  bearing  unavoidable  hunger  and  thirst  with  a  good 

^Li/e  of  Sir  R.  I.  Murchison^  vol.  ii.  pp.  297-^. 
39 


458  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

grace.  Considering  the  greatness  of  the  object  to  be  attained,  men 
might  go  without  sugar,  coffee,  tea,  as  I  went  from  September,  1866,  to 
December,  1868,  without  either." 

On  the  subject  of  Missions  he  says,  at  a  later  period, 
8th  November:  "The  spirit  of  missions  is  the  spirit  of 
our  Master ;  the  very  genius  of  his  religion.  A  diffusive 
philanthropy  is  Christianity  itself.  It  requires  perpetual 
propagation  to  attest  its  genuineness." 

Thanks  to  Mr.  Stanley  and  the  American  Consul,  who 
made  arrangements  in  a  way  that  drew  Livingstone's 
warmest  gratitude,  his  escort  arrived  at  last,  consisting  of 
fifty-seven  men  and  boys.  Several  of  these  had  gone 
with  Mr.  Stanley  from  Unyanyembe  to  Zanzibar ;  among 
the  new  men  were  some  Nassick  pupils  who  had  been 
sent  from  Bombay  to  join  Lieutenant  Dawson.  John  and 
Jacob  Wainwright  were  among  these.  To  Jacob  Wain- 
wright,  who  was  well-educated,  we  owe  the  earliest  nar- 
rative that  appeared  of  the  last  eight  months  of  Living- 
stone's career.  How  happy  he  was  with  the  men  now 
sent  to  him  appears  from  a  letter  to  Mr.  Stanley,  written 
very  near  his  death:  "I  am  perpetually  reminded  that 
I  owe  a  great  deal  to  you  for  the  men  you  sent.  With 
one  exception,  the  party  is  working  like  a  machine.  I 
give  my  orders  to  Manwa  Sera,  and  never  have  to  repeat 
them."     Would  that  he  had  had  such  a  company  before! 

On  the  25th  August  the  party  started.  On  the  8th 
October  they  reached  Tanganyika,  and  rested,  for  they 
were  tired,  and  several  were  sick,  including  Livingstone, 
who  had  been  ill  with  his  bowel  disorder.  The  march 
went  on  slowly,  and  with  few  incidents.  As  the  season 
advanced,  rain,  mist,  swollen  streams,  and  swampy  ground 
became  familiar.  At  the  end  of  the  year  they  were 
approaching  the  river  Chambeze.  Christmas  had  its 
thanksgiving:  "I  thank  the  good  Lord  for  the  good 
gift  of  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

In  the  second  week  of  January  they  came  near  Banfif 


FEOM  VNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO.       459 

weolo,  and  the  reign  of  Neptune  became  incessant.  We 
are  told  of  cold  rainy  weather ;  sometimes  a  drizzle,  some- 
times an  incessant  pour ;  swollen  streams  and  increasing 
sponges, — making  progress  a  continual  struggle.  Yet,  as 
he  passes  through  a  forest,  he  has  an  eye  to  its  flowers, 
which  are  numerous  and  beautiful : 

"There  are  many  flowers  m  the  forest;  marigolds,  a  white  jonquil- 
looking  flower  Without  smell,  many  orchids,  white,  yellow,  and  pink 
asclepias,  with  bunches  of  French-white  flowers,  clematis — Methonica 
gloriosa,  gladiolus,  and  blue  and  deep  purple  polygalas,  grasses  with 
white  starry  seed-vessels,  and  spikelets  of  brownish  red  and  yellow. 
Besides  these,  there  are  beautiful  blue  flowering  bulbs,  and  new  flowers 
of  pretty,  delicate  form  and  but  little  scent.  To  this  list  may  be  added 
balsams,  compositae  of  blood-red  color  and  of  purple;  other  flowers 
of  liver  color,  bright  canary  yellow,  pink  orchids  on  spikes  thickly 
covered  all  round,  and  of  three  inches  in  length ;  spiderworts  of  fine 
blue  or  yellow  or  even  pink.  Dififerent  colored  asclepiade^e ;  beautiful 
yellow  and  red  umbelliferous  flowering  plants ;  dill  and  wild  parsnips ; 
pretty  flowering  aloes,  yellow  and  red,  in  one  whorl  of  blossoms ;  peaa 
and  many  other  flowering  plants  which  I  do  not  know." 

Observations  were  taken  with  unremitting  diligence, 
except  when,  as  was  now  common,  nothing  could  be  seen 
in  the  heavens.  As  they  advanced,  the  weather  became 
worse.  It  rained  as  if  nothing  but  rain  were  ever  known 
in  the  watershed.  The  path  lay  across  flooded  rivers, 
which  were  distinguished  hj  their  currents  only  from  the 
flooded  country  along  their  banks.  Dr.  Livingstone  had 
to  be  carried  over  the  rivers  on  the  back  of  one  of  his  men, 
in  the  fashion  so  graphically  depicted  on  the  cover  of  the 
Last  Journals.  The  stretches  of  sponge  that  came  before 
and  after  the  rivers,  with  their  long  grass  and  elephant- 
holes,  were  scarcely  less  trying.  The  inhabitants  were, 
commonly,  most  unfriendly  to  the  party;  they  refused 
them  food,  and,  whenever  they  could,  deceived  them  as 
to  the  way.  Hunger  bore  down  on  the  party  with  its 
bitter  gnawing.  Once  a  mass  of  furious  ants  attacked 
the  Doctor  Dy  night,  driving  him  in  despair  from  hut  to 


460  DAVID  LIVINOSTONE. 

hut.  Any  frame  but  one  of  iron  must  have  succumbed  to 
a  single  month  of  such  a  life,  and  before  a  week  was  out, 
any  body  of  men,  not  held  together  by  a  power  of  disci- 
pline and  a  charm  of  affection  unexampled  in  the  history 
of  difl&cult  expeditions,  would  have  been  scattered  to  the 
four  winds.  Livingstone's  own  sufferings  were  beyond  all 
previous  example. 

About  this  time  he  began  an  undated  letter — his  last 
— to  his  old  friends  Sir  Thomas  Maclear  and  Mr.  Mann. 
It  was  never  finished,  and  never  despatched ;  but  as  one 
of  the  latest  things  he  ever  wrote,  it  is  deeply  interesting, 
as  showing  how  clear,  vigorous,  and  independent  his  mind 
was  to  the  very  last : 

**  Lakb  Bangweolo,  South  Central  Africa, 
"My  dear  Friends  Maclear  and  Mann, —  .  .  ,  My  work  at 
present  is  mainly  retracing  my  steps  to  take  up  the  thread  of  my  ex- 
ploration. It  counts  in  my  lost  time,  but  I  try  to  make  the  most  of  it 
by  going  round  outside  this  lake  and  all  the  sources,  so  that  no  one 
may  come  afterward  and  cut  me  out.  I  have  a  party  of  good  men, 
selected  by  H.  M.  Stanley,  who,  at  the  instance  of  James  Gordon 
Bennett,  of  the  New  York  Herald^  acted  the  part  of  a  good  Samaritan 
truly,  and  relieved  my  sore  necessities.  A  dutiful  son  could  not  have 
done  more  than  he  generously  did.  I  bless  him.  The  men,  fifty-six  in 
number,  have  behaved  as  well  as  Makololo.  I  cannot  award  them 
higher  praise,  though  they  have  not  the  courage  of  that  brave  kind- 
hearted  people.  From  Unyanyembe  we  went  due  south  to  avoid  an 
Arab  war  which  had  been  going  on  for  eighteen  months.  It  is  like  one 
of  our  Caffre  wars,  with  this  difference — no  one  is  enriched  thereby,  for 
all  trade  is  stopped,  and  the  Home  Government  pays  nothing.  We  then 
went  westward  to  Tanganyika,  and  along  its  eastern  excessively  moun- 
tainous bank  to  the  end.  The  heat  waa  really  broiling  among  the  rocks. 
No  rain  had  fallen,  and  the  grass  being  generally  burned  off,  the  heat 
rose  off  the  black  ashes  as  if  out  of  an  oven,  yet  the  flowers  persisted  in 
coming  out  of  the  burning  soil,  and  generally  without  leaves,  as  if  it 
had  been  a  custom  that  they  must  observe  by  a  law  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians.  This  part  detained  us  long ;  the  men's  limbs  were  affected 
with  a  sort  of  subcutaneous  inflammation, — black  rose  or  erysipelas, — • 
and  when  I  proposed  mildly  and  medically  to  relieve  the  tension  it  waa 
too  horrible  to  be  thought  of,  but  they  willingly  carried  the  helpleaa. 
Then  we  mounted  up  at  once  into  the  high,  cold  region  Urungn,  south 


FEOM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO,       461 

of  Tanganyika,  and  into  the  middle  of  the  rainy  season,  with  well-grown 
graas  and  everything  oppressively  green  ;  rain  so  often  that  no  obser- 
vations could  be  made,  except  at  wide  intervals.  I  could  form  no 
opinion  as  to  our  longitude,  and  but  little  of  our  latitudes.  Three  of 
the  Baurungu  chiefs,  one  a  great  friend  of  mine,  Nasonso,  had  died, 
and  the  population  all  turned  topsy-turvy,  so  I  could  make  no  use  of 
previous  observations.  They  elect  sisters'  or  brothers'  sons  to  the  chief- 
tainship, instead  of  the  heir-apparent.  Food  was  not  to  be  had  for 
either  love  or  money. 

"  I  was  at  the  mercy  of  guides  who  did  not  know  their  own  country, 
and  when  I  insisted  on  following  the  compass,  they  threatened, '  no  food 
for  five  or  ten  days  in  that  line.'  They  brought  us  down  to  the  back  or 
north  side  of  Bangweolo,  while  I  wanted  to  cross  the  Chambeze  and  go 
round  its  southern  side.  So  back  again  southeastward  we  had  to 
bend.  The  Portuguese  crossed  this  Chambeze  a  long  time  ago,  and  are 
therefore  the  first  European  discoverers.  We  were  not  black  men  with 
Portuguese  names  like  those  for  whom  the  feat  of  crossing  the  continent 
was  eagerly  claimed  by  Lisbon  statesmen.  Dr.  Lacerda  was  a  man  of 
scientific  attainments,  and  Governor  of  Tette,  but  finding  Cazembe  at 
the  rivulet  called  Chungu,  he  unfortunately  succumbed  to  fever  ten  days 
after  his  arrival.  He  seemed  anxious  to  make  his  way  across  to  Angola. 
Misled  by  the  similarity  of  Chambeze  to  Zambesi,  they  all  thought  it  to 
be  a  branch  of  the  rivier  that  flows  past  Tette,  Senna,  and  Shupanga,  by 
Luabo  and  Kongon^  to  the  sea. 

"  I  rather  stupidly  took  up  the  same  idea  from  a  map  saying 
'Zambesi'  (eastern  branch),  believing  that  the  map  printer  had  some 
authority  for  his  assertion.  My  first  crossing  was  thus  as  fruitless  as 
theirs,  and  I  was  less  excusable,  for  I  ought  to  have  remembered  that 
while  Chambeze  is  the  true  native  name  of  the  northern  river,  Zambesi 
is  not  the  name  of  the  southern  river  at  all.  It  is  a  Portugese  cor- 
ruption of  Dombazi,  which  we  adopted  rather  than  introduce  confusion 
by  new  names,  in  the  same  way  that  we  adopted  Nyassa  instead  of 
Nyanza  ia  Nyinyesi  =  Lake  of  the  Stars,  which  the  Portuguese,  from 
hearsay,  corrupted  into  Nyassa  The  English  have  been  worse  propa- 
gators of  nonsense  than  Portuguese.  '  G-eography  of  Nyassa'  was 
thought  to  be  a  learned  way  of  writing  the  name,  though  *  Nyassi' 
means  long  grass  and  nothing  else.  It  took  me  twenty-two  months  to 
eliminate  the  error  into  which  I  was  led,  and  then  it  was  not  by  my  own 
acuteness,  but  by  the  chief  Cazembe,  who  was  lately  routed  and  slain 
by  a  party  of  Banyamwezi.  He  gave  me  the  first  hint  of  the  truth, 
and  that  rather  in  a  bantering  strain  :  *  One  piece  of  water  is  just  like 
another;  Bangweolo  water  is  just  like  Moero  water,  Chambeze  water 
like  Luapula  water ;  they  are  all  the  same  ;  but  your  chief  ordered  you 
to  go  to  the  Bangweolo,  therefore  by  all  means  go,  but  wait  a  few  dayst 


462  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

till  I  have  looked  out  for  good  men  as  guides,  and  good  food  for  you  t« 

eat,'  etc.  etc, 

^'''  I  was  not  sure  but  that  it  was  all  royal  chaff,  till  I  made  my  way 
back  south  to  the  head-waters  again,  and  had  the  natives  of  the  islet 
Mpabala  slowly  moving  the  hands  all  around  the  great  expanse,  with 
183^  of  sea  horizon,  and  saying  that  is  Chambeze,  forming  the  great 
Bangweolo,  and  disappearing  behind  that  western  headland  to  change 
its  name  to  Luapula,  and  run  down  past  Cazembe  to  Moero.  That  was 
Ihe  moment  of  discovery,  and  not  my  passage  or  the  Portuguese  passage 
Df  the  river.  If,  however,  any  one  chooses  to  claim  for  them  the  dis- 
covery of  Chambeze  as  one  line  of  drainage  of  the  Nile  Valley,  I  shall 
not  fight  with  him  ;  Culpepper's  astrology  was  in  the  same  way  the 
forerunner  of  the  Herschels'  and  the  other  astronomers  that  followed." 

To  another  old  friend,  Mr  James  Young,  he  wrote  about 
the  same  time:  "  Opere  perado  ludemus — the  work  being 
finished,  we  will  play — you  remember  in  your  Latin  Rudi- 
ments lang  syne.  It  is  true  for  you,  and  I  rejoice  to  think 
it  is  now  your  portion,  after  working  nobly,  to  play.  May 
you  have  a  long  spell  of  it  I  I  am  differently  situated ;  I 
shall  never  be  able  to  play.  ...  To  me  it  seems  to  be 
said,  *  If  thou  forbear  to  deliver  them  that  are  drawn  unto 
death,  and  those  that  be  ready  to  be  slain ;  if  thou  sayest, 
Behold  we  knew  it  not,  doth  not  He  that  pondereth  the 
heart  consider,  and  He  that  keepeth  thy  soul  doth  He  not 
know,  and  shall  He  not  give  to  every  one  according  to  his 
works?'  I  have  been  led,  unwittingly,  into  the  slaving 
field  of  the  Banians  and  Arabs  in  Central  Africa.  I  have 
seen  the  woes  inflicted,  and  I  must  still  work  and  do  all  I 
can  to  expose  and  mitigate  the  evils.  Though  hard  work 
is  still  to  be  my  lot,  I  look  genially  on  others  more  favored 
in  their  lot.  I  would  not  be  a  member  of  the  *  Inter- 
national,' for  I  love  to  see  and  think  of  others  enjoying 
life. 

"  During  a  large  part  of  this  journey  l  nad  a  strong 
presentiment  that  I  should  never  live  to  finish  it.  It  is 
weakened  now,  as  I  seem  to  see  the  end  toward  which  I 
have  been  striving  looming  in  the  distance.    This  presenti- 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO.       463 

ment  did  not  interfere  with  the  performance  of  any  duty ; 
it  only  made  me  think  a  great  deal  more  of  the  future 
state  of  being." 

In  his  latest  letters  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  the 
great  desire  of  his  heart  was  to  expose  the  slave-trade,  rouse 
public  feeling,  and  get  that  great  hindrance  to  all  good 
for  ever  swept  away. 

"  Spare  no  pains,"  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Kirk  in  1871,  "  in 
attempting  to  persuade  your  superior  to  this  end,  and  the 
Divine  blessing  will  descend  on  you  and  yours." 

To  his  daughter  Agnes  he  wrote  (15th  August,  1872) : 
"No  one  can  estimate  the  amount  of  God-pleasing  good 
that  will  be  done,  if,  by  Divine  favor,  this  awful  slave- 
trade,  into  the  midst  of  which  I  have  come,  be  abolished. 
This  will  be  something  to  have  lived  for,  and  the  convic- 
tion has  grown  in  my  mind  that  it  was  Jor  this  end  I  have 
been  detained  so  long." 

To  his  brother  in  Canada  he  says  (December,  1872): 
**If  the  good  Lord  permits  me  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
enormous  evils  of  the  inland  slave-trade,  I  shall  not 
grudge  my  hunger  and  toils.  I  shall  bless  his  name  with 
all  my  heart.  The  Nile  sources  are  valuable  to  me  only 
as  a  means  of  enabling  me  to  open  my  mouth  with  power 
among  men.  It  is  this  power  I  hope  to  apply  to  remedy 
an  enormous  evil,  and  join  my  poor  little  helping  hand  in 
the  enormous  revolution  that  in  his  all-embracing  Provi- 
dence He  has  been  carrying  on  for  ages,  and  is  now 
actually  helping  forward.  Men  may  think  I  covet  fame, 
but  I  make  it  a  rule  never  to  read  aught  written  in  my 
praise." 

Livingstone's  last  birthday  (19th  March,  1873)  found 
him  in  much  the  same  circumstances  as  before.  "  Thanks 
to  the  Almighty  Preserver  of  men  for  sparing  me  thus 
far  on  the  journey  of  life.  Can  I  hope  for  ultimate  success  ? 
So  many  obstacles  have  arisen.  Let  not  Satan  prevail 
over  me,  0  my  good  Lord  Jesus."    A  few  days  after  (24th 


464  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

March) :  "  Nothing  earthly  will  make  me  give  up  my  work 
in  despair.  I  encourage  myself  in  the  Lord  my  God,  and 
go  forward." 

In  the  beginning  of  April,  the  bleeding  from  the  bowels, 
from  which  he  had  been  suffering,  became  more  copious, 
and  his  weakness  was  pitiful ;  still  he  longed  for  strength 
to  finish  his  work.  Even  yet  the  old  passion  for  natural 
history  was  strong;  the  aqueous  plants  that  abounded 
everywhere,  the  caterpillars  that  after  eating  the  plants 
ate  one  another,  and  were  such  clumsy  swimmers ;  the  fish 
with  the  hook-shaped  lower  jaw  that  enabled  them  to  feed 
as  they  skimmed  past  the  plants ;  the  morning  summons 
of  the  cocks  and  turtle-doves ;  the  weird  scream  of  the  fish 
eagle — all  engaged  his  interest.  Observations  continued 
to  be  taken,  and  the  Sunday  services  were  always  held. 

But  on  the  21st  April  a  change  occurred.  In  a  shaky 
hand  he  wrote :  "  Tried  to  ride,  but  was  forced  to  lie  down, 
and  they  carried  me  back  to  vil.  exhausted."  A  kitanda 
or  palanquin  had  to  be  made  for  carrying  him.  It  was 
sorry  work,  for  his  pains  were  excruciating  and  his  weak- 
ness excessive.  On  the  27th  ApriP  he  was  apparently  at 
the  lowest  ebb,  and  wrote  in  his  Journal  the  last  words 
he  ever  penned — "  Knocked  up  quite,  and  remain  =  re- 
cover sent  to  buy  milch  goats.  We  are  on  the  banks  of 
R.  Molilamo." 

The  word  "recover"  seems  to  show  that  he  had  no 
presentiment  of  death,  but  cherished  the  hope  of  re- 
covery ;  and  Mr.  Waller  has  pointed  out,  from  his  own 
sad  observation  of  numerous  cases  in  connection  with  the 
Universities  Mission,  that  malarial  poisoning  is  usually 
unattended  with  the  apprehension  of  death,  and  that  in 
none  of  these  instances,  any  more  than  in  the  case  of 
Livingstone,  were  there  any  such  messages,  or  instruc- 
tions, or  expressions  of  trust  and  hope  as  are  usual  on  th« 
part  of  Christian  men  when  death  is  near. 

^This  was  the  eleveoth  anniversary  of  his  wife's  death. 


FBOM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO.       465 

The  29th  of  April  was  the  last  day  of  his  travels.  In 
the  morning  he  directed  Susi  to  take  down  the  side  of  th« 
hut  that  the  kitanda  might  be  brought  along,  as  the  door 
would  not  admit  it,  and  he  was  quite  unable  to  walk  to  it. 
Then  came  the  crossing  of  a  river ;  then  progress  through 
swamps  and  plashes ;  and  when  they  got  to  anything  like 
a  dry  plain,  he  would  ever  and  anon  beg  of  them  to  lay 
him  down.  At  last  they  got  him  to  Chitambo's  village,  in 
Ilala,  where  they  had  to  put  him  under  the  eaves  of  a 
house  during  a  drizzling  rain,  until  the  hut  they  were 
building  should  be  got  ready. 

Then  they  laid  him  on  a  rough  bed  in  the  hut,  where 
he  spent  the  night.  Next  day  he  lay  undisturbed.  He 
asked  a  few  wandering  questions  about  the  country — 
especially  about  the  Luapula.  His  people  knew  that  the 
end  could  not  be  far  off.  Nothing  occurred  to  attract 
notice  during  the  early  part  of  the  night,  but  at  four  in 
the  morning,  the  boy  who  lay  at  his  door  called  in  alarm 
for  Susi,  fearing  that  their  master  was  dead.  By  the  candle 
still  burning  they  saw  him,  not  in  bed,  but  kneeling  at 
the  bedside  with  his  head  buried  in  his  hands  upon  the 
pillow.  The  sad  yet  not  unexpected  truth  soon  became 
evident :  he  had  passed  away  on  the  furthest  of  all  his 
journeys,  and  without  a  single  attendant.  But  he  had 
died  in  the  act  of  prayer — prayer  offered  in  that  rever- 
ential attitude  about  which  he  was  always  so  particular ; 
commending  his  own  spirit,  with  all  his  dear  ones,  as  was 
his  wont,  into  the  hands  of  his  Saviour ;  and  commending 
Africa — his  own  dear  Africa — with  all  her  woes  and 
sins  and  wrongs,  to  the  Avenger  of  the  oppressed  and  the 
Eedeemer  of  the  lost. 

If  anything  were  needed  to  commend  the  African  race, 
and  prove  them  possessed  of  qualities  fitted  to  make  a 
noble  nation,  the  courage,  afiection,  and  persevering  loyalty 
shown  by  his  attendants  after  his  death  might  well  have 
ttiis  effect.     When  the  sad  event  became  known  among 


46«  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

the  men,  it  was  cordially  resolved  that  every  effort  should 
be  made  to  carry  their  master's  remains  to  Zanzibar.  Such 
an  undertaking  was  extremely  perilous,  for  there  were  not 
merely  the  ordinary  risks  of  travel  to  a  small  body  of 
natives,  but  there  was  also  the  superstitious  horror  every- 
where prevalent  connected  with  the  dead.  Chitambo  must 
be  kept  in  ignorance  of  what  had  happened,  otherwise  a 
ruinous  fine  would  be  sure  to  be  inflicted  on  them.  The 
secret,  however,  oozed  out,  but  happily  the  chief  was  reason- 
able. Susi  and  Chuma,  the  old  attendants  of  Livingstone, 
became  now  the  leaders  of  the  company,  and  they  fulfilled 
their  task  right  nobly.  The  interesting  narrative  of  Mr. 
"Waller  at  the  end  of  the  Last  Journals  tells  us  how  calmly 
yet  efficiently  they  set  to  work.  Arrangements  were  made 
for  drying  and  embalming  the  body,  after  removing  and 
burying  the  heart  and  other  viscera.  For  fourteen  days 
the  body  was  dried  in  the  sun.  After  being  wrapped  in 
calico,  and  the  legs  bent  inward  at  the  knees,  it  was  en- 
closed in  a  large  piece  of  bark  from  a  Myonga-tree  in  the 
form  of  a  cylinder;  over  this  a  piece  of  sail-cloth  was 
sewed ;  and  the  package  was  lashed  to  a  pole,  so  as  to  be 
carried  by  two  men.  Jacob  Wainwright  carved  an  in- 
scription on  the  Mvula  tree  under  which  the  body  had 
rested,  and  where  the  heart  was  buried,  and  Chitambo 
was  charged  to  keep  the  grass  cleared  away,  and  to  protect 
two  posts  and  a  cross-piece  which  they  erected  to  mark 
the  spot. 

They  then  set  out  on  their  homeward  march.  It  was  a 
serious  journey,  for  the  terrible  exposure  had  affected  the 
health  of  most  of  them,  and  many  had  to  lie  down  through 
sickness.  The  tribes  through  which  they  passed  were 
generally  friendly,  but  not  always.  At  one  place  they  had 
a  regular  fight.  On  the  whole,  their  progress  was  wonder- 
fully quiet  and  regular.  Everywhere  they  found  that  the 
news  of  the  Doctor's  death  had  got  before  them.  At  one 
place  they  heard  that  a  party  of  Englishmen,  headed  by 


FROM  TJNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO.       467 

Dr.  Livingstone's  son,  on  their  way  to  relieve  his  father, 
had  been  seen  at  Bagamoio  some  months  previously.  As 
they  approached  Unyanyembe,  they  learned  that  the  party 
was  there,  but  when  Chuma  ran  on  before,  he  was  dis- 
appointed to  find  that  Oswell  Livingstone  was  not  among 
them.  Lieutenant  Cameron,  Dr.  Dillon,  and  Lieutenant 
Murphy  were  there,  and  heard  the  tidings  of  the  men  with 
deep  emotion.  Cameron  wished  them  to  bury  the  remains 
where  they  were,  and  not  run  the  risk  of  conveying  them 
through  the  Ugogo  country ;  but  the  men  were  inflexible, 
determined  to  carry  out  their  first  intention.  This  was 
not  the  only  interference  with  these  devoted  and  faithful 
men.  Considering  how  carefully  they  had  gathered  all 
Livingstone's  property,  and  how  conscientiously,  at  the 
risk  of  their  lives,  they  were  carrying  it  to  the  coast,  to 
transfer  it  to  the  British  Consul  there,  it  was  not  warrant- 
able in  the  new-comers  to  take  the  boxes  from  them,  ex- 
amine their  contents,  and  carry  off  a  part  of  them.  Nor 
do  we  think  Lieutenant  Cameron  was  entitled  to  take  away 
the  instruments  with  which  all  Livingstone's  observations 
had  been  made  for  a  series  of  seven  years,  and  use  them, 
though  only  temporarily,  for  the  purpose  of  his  Expedition, 
inasmuch  as  he  thereby  made  it  impossible  so  to  reduce 
Livingstone's  observations  as  that  correct  results  should  be 
obtained  from  them.  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  seems  not  to 
have  adverted  to  this  result  of  Mr.  Cameron's  act,  in  his 
reference  to  the  matter  from  the  chair  of  the  Geographical 
Society. 

On  leaving  Unyanyembe  the  party  were  joined  by  Lieu- 
tenant Murphy,  not  much  to  the  promotion  of  unity  of 
action  or  harmonious  feeling.  At  Kasekera  a  spirit  of 
opposition  was  shown  by  the  inhabitants,  and  a  ruse  waa 
resorted  to  so  as  to  throw  them  off  their  guard.  It  was 
resolved  to  pack  the  remains  in  such  form  that  when 
wrapped  in  calico  they  should  appear  like  an  ordinary 
bale  of  merchandise.     A  fagot  of  mapira  stalks,  cut  into 


468  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

lengths  of  about  six  feet,  was  then  swathed  in  cloth,  to 
imitate  a  dead  body  about  to  be  buried.  This  was  sent 
back  along  the  way  to  Unyanyembe,  as  if  the  party  had 
changed  their  minds  and  resolved  to  bury  the  remains 
there.  The  bearers,  at  nightfall,  began  to  throw  away  the 
mapira  rods,  and  then  the  wrappings,  and  when  they  had 
thus  disposed  of  them  they  returned  to  their  companions. 
The  villagers  of  Kasekera  had  now  no  suspicion,  and 
allowed  the  party  to  pass  unmolested.  But  though  one 
tragedy  was  averted,  another  was  enacted  at  Kasekera — 
the  dreadful  suicide  of  Dr.  Dillon  while  suffering  from 
dysentery  and  fever. 

The  cortege  now  passed  on  without  further  incident,  and 
arrived  at  Bagamoio  in  February,  1874.  Soon  after  they 
reached  Bagamoio  a  cruiser  arrived  from  Zanzibar,  with 
the  acting  Consul,  Captain  Prideaux,  on  board,  and  the  re- 
mains were  conveyed  to  that  island  previous  to  their  being 
sent  to  England. 

The  men  that  for  nine  long  months  remained  steadfast 
to  their  purpose  to  pay  honor  to  the  remains  of  their 
master,  in  the  midst  of  innumerable  trials  and  dangers 
and  without  hope  of  reward,  have  established  a  strong 
claim  to  the  gratitude  and  admiration  of  the  world. 
Would  that  the  debt  were  promptly  repaid  in  efforts  to 
free  Africa  from  her  oppressors,  and  send  throughout  all 
her  borders  the  Divine  proclamation,  "Glory  to  God  in 
the  highest,  on  earth  peace,  good-will  to  men." 

In  regard  to  the  Search  party  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  it  may  be  stated  that  when  Livingstone's  pur- 
pose to  go  back  to  the  barbarous  regions  where  he  had 
suffered  so  much  before  became  known  in  England  it  ex- 
cited a  feeling  of  profound  concern.  Two  Expeditions 
were  arranged.  That  to  the  East  Coast,  organized  by  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  was  placed  under  Lieutenant 
Cameron,  and  included  in  its  ranks  Robert  Moffat,  a 
grandson  of  Dr.  Moffat's,  who  (as  has  been  already  stated) 


FEOM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANOWEOLO,      469 

fell  early  a  sacrifice  to  fever.  The  members  of  the  Expe- 
dition suffered  much  from  sickness ;  it  was  broken  up  at 
Unyanyembe,  when  the  party  bearing  the  remains  of  Dr. 
Livingstone  was  met.  The  other  party,  under  command 
of  Lieutenant  Grandy,  was  to  go  to  the  West  Coast,  start 
from  Loanda,  strike  the  Congo,  and  move  on  to  Lake 
Lincoln.  This  Expedition  was  fitted  out  solely  at  the  cost 
of  Mr.  Young.  He  was  deeply  concerned  for  the  safety  of 
his  friend,  knowing  how  he  was  hated  by  the  slave-traders 
whose  iniquities  he  had  exposed,  and  thinking  it  likely 
that  if  he  once  reached  Lake  Lincoln  he  would  make  for 
the  west  coast  along  the  Congo.  The  purpose  of  these  Ex- 
peditions is  carefully  explained  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Dr. 
Livingstone  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  then  President  of 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society : 

"  London,  November  20,  1872. 

"  Dear  Dr.  Livingstone, — You  will  no  doubt  have  heard  of  Sir 
Bartle  Frere's  deputation  to  Zanzibar  long  before  you  receive  this,  and 
you  will  have  learnt  with  heartfelt  satisfaction  that  there  is  now  a  defi- 
nite prospect  of  the  infamous  East  African  slave-trade  being  suppressed. 
Tor  this  great  end,  if  it  be  achieved,  we  shall  be  mainly  indebted  to  your 
recent  letters,  which  have  had  a  powerful  effect  on  the  public  mind  in 
England,  and  have  thus  stimulated  the  action  of  the  Government.  Sir 
Bartle  will  keep  you  informed  of  his  arrangements,  if  there  are  any 
means  of  communicating  with  the  interior,  and  I  am  sure  you  will 
assist  him  to  the  utmost  of  your  power  in  carrying  out  the  good  work 
in  which  he  is  engaged. 

"  It  was  a  great  disappointment  to  us  that  Lieutenant  Dawson's  Ex- 
pedition, which  we  fitted  out  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  with  such 
completeness,  did  not  join  you  at  Unyanyembe,  for  it  could  not  have 
failed  to  be  of  service  to  you  in  many  ways.  We  are  now  trying  to  aid 
you  with  a  second  Expedition  under  Lieutenant  Cameron,  whom  we 
have  sent  out  under  Sir  Bartle's  orders,  to  join  you  if  possible  in  the 
vicinity  of  Lake  Tanganyika,  and  attend  to  your  wishes  in  respect  to 
his  further  movements.  We  leave  it  entirely  to  your  discretion  whether 
you  like  to  keep  Mr.  Cameron  with  you  or  to  send  him  on  to  the 
Victoria  Nyanza,  or  any  other  points  that  you  are  unable  to  visit  your- 
self. Of  course  the  great  point  of  interest  connected  with  your  present 
exploration  is  the  determination  of  the  lower  course  of  the  Lualaba. 
Hr.  Stanley  still  adheres  to  the  yiew,  which  jou  formerly  held,  that  it 
40 


470  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

drains  into  the  Nile ;  but  if  the  levels  which  you  give  are  correct,  this 
is  impossible.  At  any  rate,  the  opinion  of  the  identity  of  the  Congo  and 
Lualaba  is  now  becoming  so  universal  that  Mr.  Young  has  come  for- 
ward with  a  donation  of  £2000  to  enable  us  to  send  another  Expedition 
to  your  assistance  up  that  river,  and  Lieutenant  G-randy,  with  a  crew 
©f  twenty  Kroomen,  will  accordingly  be  pulling  up  the  Congo  before 
many  months  are  over.  "Whether  he  will  really  be  able  to  penetrate  to 
your  un visited  lake,  or  beyond  it  to  Lake  Lincoln,  is,  of  course,  a 
matter  of  great  doubt ;  but  it  will  at  an^  rate  be  gratifying  to  you  to 
know  that  support  is  approaching  you  both  from  the  west  and  east. 
We  all  highly  admire  and  appreciate  your  indomitable  energy  and  per- 
severance, and  the  Geographical  Society  will  do  everything  in  its  power 
to  support  you,  so  as  to  compensate  in  some  measure  for  the  loss  you 
have  sustained  in  the  death  of  your  old  friend  Sir  Roderick  Murchison. 
My  own  tenure  of  office  expires  in  May,  and  it  is  not  yet  decided  who 
is  to  succeed  me,  but  whoever  may  be  our  President,  our  interest  in 
your  proceedings  will  not  slacken.  Mr.  Waller  will,  I  daresay,  have 
told  you  that  we  have  just  sent  a  memorial  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  praying 
that  a  pension  may  be  at  once  conferred  upon  your  daughters,  and  I 
have  every  hope  that  our  prayer  may  be  successful.  You  will  see  by 
the  papers,  now  sent  to  you,  that  there  has  been  much  acrimonious 
discussion  of  late  on  African  affairs.  I  have  tried  myself  in  every 
possible  way  to  throw  oil  on  the  troubled  waters,  and  begin  to  hope 
now  for  something  like  peace.  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  hear  from  you 
if  you  can  spare  time  to  send  me  a  line,  and  will  always  keep  a  watch- 
ful eye  over  your  interests. — I  remain,  yours  very  truly, 

"  H.  C.  Eawlinson." 

The  remains  were  brought  to  Aden  on  board  the 
"Calcutta,"  and  thereafter  transferred  to  the  P.  and  O. 
steamer  "  Malwa,"  which  arrived  at  Southampton  on  the 
15th  of  April.  Mr.  Thomas  Livingstone,  eldest  surviving 
son  of  the  Doctor,  being  then  in  Egypt  on  account  of 
his  health,^  had  gone  on  board  at  Alexandria.  The  body 
was  conveyed  to  London  by  special  train  and  deposited 
in  the  rooms  of  the  Geographical  Society  in  Saville  Row. 

In  the  course  of  the  evening  the  remains  were  ex- 
amined by  Sir  William  Fergusson  and  several  other 
medical  gentleman,  including  Dr.  Loudon,  of  Hamilton, 

1  Thomas  never  regained  robust  health.    He  died  at  Alexandria,  15th  March, 
1876.C 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO.      471 

whose  protessional  skill  and  great  kindness  to  his  family 
had  gained  for  him  a  high  place  in  the  esteem  and  love 
of  Livingstone.  To  many  persons  it  had  appeared  so 
incredible  that  the  remains  should  have  been  brought 
from  the  heart  of  Africa  to  London,  that  some  conclusive 
identification  of  the  body  seemed  to  be  necessary  to 
set  all  doubt  at  rest.  The  state  of  the  arm,  the  one 
that  had  been  broken  by  the  lion,  supplied  the  crucial 
evidence.  "Exactly  in  the  region  of  the  attachment  of 
the  deltoid  to  the  humerus"  (said  Sir  William  Fergusson 
in  a  contribution  to  the  Lancet,  April  18,  1874),  "  there 
were  the  indications  of  an  oblique  fracture.  On  moving 
the  arm  there  were  the  indications  of  an  ununited 
fracture.  A  closer  identification  and  dissection  displayed 
the  false  joint  that  had  so  long  ago  been  so  well  recog- 
nized by  those  who  had  examined  the  arm  in  former 
days.  .  .  .  The  first  glance  set  my  mind  at  rest,  and 
that,  with  the  further  examination,  made  me  as  positive 
as  to  the  identification  of  these  remains  as  that  there  has 
been  among  us  in  modern  times  one  of  the  greatest  men 
of  the  human  race — David  Livingstone." 

On  Saturday,  April  18,  1874,  the  remains  of  the  great 
traveler  were  committed  to  their  resting-place  near  the 
centre  of  the  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey.  Many  old 
friends  of  Livingstone  came  to  be  present,  and  many  of 
his  admirers,  who  could  not  but  avail  themselves  of 
the  opportunity  to  pay  a  last  tribute  of  respect  to  his 
memory.  The  Abbey  was  crowded  in  every  part  from 
which  the  spectacle  might  be  seen.  The  pall-bearei-s  were 
Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley,  Jacob  Wainwright,  Sir  T.  Steele,  Dr. 
Kirk,  Mr.  W.  F.  Webb,  Eev.  Horace  Waller,  Mr.  Oswell, 
and  Mr.  E.  D.  Young.  Two  of  these,  Mr.  Waller  and  Dr. 
Kirk,  along  with  Dr.  Stewart,  who  was  also  present,  had 
assisted  twelve  years  before  at  the  funeral  of  Mrs.  Living- 
stone at  Shupanga.  Dr.  Mofiat,  too,  was  there,  full  of 
sorrowful  admiration.    Amid  a  service  which  was  em- 


472  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

phatically  impressive  throughout,  the  simple  words  of  the 
hymn,  sung  to  the  tune  of  Tallis,  were  peculiarly  touching; 

**  O  God  of  Bethel  I  by  whose  hand 
Thy  people  still  are  fed, 
Who  through  this  weary  pilgrimage 
Hast  all  our  fathers  led." 

The  hlack  slab  that  now  marks  the  resting-place  of 
Livingstone  bears  this  inscription : 

BROUGHT  BY  FAITHFUL  HANDS 

OVER  LAND  AND  SEA, 

HERE  RESTS 

DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

MISSIONARY,  TRAVELER,  PHILANTHROPIST, 

BORN  MARCH  19,  1813, 

AT  BLANTYRE,  LANARKSHIRE 

DIED  MAY  4,^  1873, 

AT  CHTTAMBO'S  VILLAGE,  ILALA. 

For  thirty  years  his  life  was  spent  in  an  unwearied  eflfbrt  to  evangelifli 

the  native  races,  to  explore  the  undiscovered  secrets, 

and  abolish  the  desolating  slave-trade  of  Central  Africa, 

and  where,  with  his  last  words  he  wrote  : 

**A1I  I  can  say  in  my  solitude  is,  may  Heaven's  rich  blessing 

come  down  on  every  one — American,  English,  Turk — 

who  will  help  to  heal  this  open  sore  of  the  world." 

Along  the  right  border  of  the  stone  are  the  words : 

TANTUS  AMOR  VERI,  NIHIL  EST  QUOD  NOSCERE  MALM 
QUAM  FLUVII  CAUSAS  PER  SPECULA  TANTA  LATENTBS. 

And  along  the  left  border: 

OTHER  SHEEP  I  HAVE  WHICH  ARE  NOT  OF  THIS  FOLD, 

THEM  ALSO  I  MUST  BRING,  AND  THEY  SHALL  HEAR  MY  VOICM. 

*  In  the  Zasf  journals  the  date  is  1st  May;  on  the  stone,  4th  May.    Tb« 
tttendants  could  not  quite  deterooiae  the  day. 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANOWEOLO.      478 

On  the  25th  June,  1868,  not  far  from  the  northern 
border  of  that  lake  Bangweolo  on  whose  southern  shore 
he  passed  away,  Dr.  Livingstone  came  on  a  grave  in  a 
forest.     He  says  of  it ; 

"It  was  a  little  rounded  mound,  as  if  the  occupant 
sat  in  it  in  the  usual  native  way;  it  was  strewed  over 
with  flour,  and  a  number  of  the  large  blue  beads  put  on 
it ;  a  little  path  showed  that  it  had  visitors.  This  is  the 
sort  of  grave  I  should  prefer :  to  be  in  the  still,  still  forest, 
and  no  hand  ever  disturb  my  bones.  The  graves  at  home 
always  seemed  to  me  to  be  miserable,  especially  those  in 
the  cold,  damp  clay,  and  without  elbow-room  ;  but  I  have 
nothing  to  do  but  wait  till  He  who  is  over  all  decides  where 
I  have  to  lay  me  down  and  die.  Poor  Mary  lies  on 
Shupanga  brae,  *  and  beeks  foment  the  sun.' " 

"He  who  is  over  all"  decreed  that  while  his  heart 
should  lie  in  a  leafy  forest,  in  such  a  spot  as  he  loved, 
his  bones  should  repose  in  a  great  Christian  temple, 
where  many,  day  by  day,  as  they  read  his  name,  would 
recall  his  noble  Christian  life,  and  feel  how  like  he  was  to 
Him  of  whom  it  is  written :  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
God  is  upon  me;  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  good  tidings  to  the  meek :  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind 
up  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives, 
and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound ;  to 
proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,  and  the  day  of 
vengeance  of  our  God;  to  comfort  all  that  mourn;  to 
appoint  unto  them  that  mourn  in  Zion,  to  give  unto  them 
beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  the  garment 
of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness ;  that  they  might  be 
called  trees  of  righteousness,  the  planting  of  the  Lord, 
that  He  might  be  glorified/' 

**  Droop  half-mast  colors,  bow,  bareheaded  crowds, 
As  this  plain  coffin  o'er  the  side  is  slung, 
To  pass  by  woods  of  masts  and  ratlined  shrouds, 
As  erst  by  Afric's  trunks,  liana-hung. 


474  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

'Tis  the  last  mile  of  many  thousands  trod 
With  failing  strength  but  never-failing  will, 

By  the  worn  frame,  now  at  its  rest  with  God, 
That  never  rested  from  its  fight  with  ill. 

Or  if  the  ache  of  travel  and  of  toil 

Would  sometimes  wring  a  short,  sharp  cry  of  paia 

From  agony  of  fever,  blain,  and  boil, 
'Twas  but  to  crush  it  down  and  on  again  I 

He  knew  not  that  the  trumpet  he  had  blown 
Out  of  the  darkness  of  that  dismal  land. 

Had  reached  and  roused  an  army  cf  its  own 

To  strike  the  chains  from  the  slave's  fettered  hand. 

Now  we  believe,  he  knows,  sees  all  is  well ; 

How  God  had  stayed  his  will  and  shaped  his  way. 
To  bring  the  light  to  those  that  darkling  dwell 

With  gains  that  life's  devotion  well  repay. 

Open  the  Abbey  doors  and  bear  him  in 

To  sleep  with  king  and  statesman,  chief  and  sage, 

The  missionary  come  of  weaver-kin, 

But  great  by  work  that  brooks  no  lower  wage. 

He  needs  no  epitaph  to  guard  a  name 

Which  men  shall  prize  while  worthy  work  is  known; 
He  lived  and  died  for  good — be  that  his  fame  : 

Let  marble  crumble :  this  is  Living — stone." — Punch, 

Eulogiums  on  the  dead  are  often  attempts,  sometimes 
sufficiently  clumsy,  to  conceal  one-half  of  the  truth  and 
fill  the  eye  with  the  other.  In  the  case  of  Livingstone 
there  is  really  nothing  to  conceal.  In  tracing  his  life 
in  these  pages  we  have  found  no  need  for  the  brilliant 
colors  of  the  rhetorician,  the  ingenuity  of  the  partisan, 
or  the  enthusiasm  of  the  hero-worshiper.  We  have  felt, 
from  first  to  last,  that  a  plain,  honest  statement  of  the 
truth  regarding  him  would  be  a  higher  panegyric  than 
any  ideal  picture  that  could  be  drawn.  The  best  tributes 
Daid  to  his  memory  by  distinguished  countrymen  were 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO,      475 

the  most  literal — we  might  almost  say  the  most  prosaic. 
It  is  but  a  few  leaves  we  can  reproduce  of  the  many 
wreaths  that  were  laid  on  his  tomb. 

Sir  Bartle  Frere,  as  President  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society,  after  a  copious  notice  of  his  life,  summed  it 
up  in  these  words :  "  As  a  whole,  the  work  of  his  life  will 
surely  be  held  up  in  ages  to  come  as  one  of  singular  noble- 
ness of  design,  and  of  unflinching  energy  and  self-sacrifice 
in  execution.  It  will  be  long  ere  any  one  man  will  be 
able  to  open  so  large  an  extent  of  unknown  land  to 
civilized  mankind.  Yet  longer,  perhaps,  ere  we  find  a 
brighter  example  of  a  life  of  such  continued  and  useful 
self-devotion  to  a  noble  cause." 

In  a  recent  letter  to  Dr.  Livingstone's  eldest  daughter, 
Sir  Bartle  Frere  (after  saying  that  he  was  first  introduced 
to  Dr.  Livingstone  by  Mr.  Phillip,  the  painter,  as  "  one 
of  the  noblest  men  he  had  ever  met,"  and  rehearsing  the 
history  of  his  early  acquaintance)  remarks : 

"I  could  hardly  venture  to  describe  my  estimate  of 
his  character  as  a  Christian  further  than  by  saying  that 
I  never  met  a  man  who  fulfilled  more  completely  my  idea 
of  a  perfect  Christian  gentleman, — actuated  in  what  he 
thought  and  said  and  did  by  the  highest  and  most  chival- 
rous spirit,  modeled  on  the  precepts  of  his  great  Master 
and  Exemplar. 

"  As  a  man  of  science,  I  am  less  competent  to  judge, 
for  my  knowledge  of  his  work  is  to  a  great  extent  second- 
hand ;  but  derived,  as  it  is,  from  observers  like  Sir  Thomas 
Maclear,  and  geographers  like  Arrowsmith,  I  believe  him 
to  be  quite  unequaled  as  a  scientific  traveler,  in  the  care 
and  accuracy  with  which  he  observed.  In  other  branches 
of  science  I  had  more  opportunities  of  satisfying  myself, 
and  of  knowing  how  keen  and  accurate  was  his  observa- 
tion, and  how  extensive  his  knowledge  of  everything  con- 
nected with  natural  science ;  but  every  page  of  his  journals, 
to  the  last  week  of  his  life,  testified  to  his  wonderful 


476  DAVID  LIVINOSTONK 

natural  powers  and  accurate  observation.  Thirdly,  as  a 
missionary  and  explorer  I  have  always  put  him  in  the 
very  first  rank.  He  seemed  to  me  to  possess  in  the  most 
wonderful  degree  that  union  of  opposite  qualities  which 
were  required  for  such  a  work  as  opening  out  heathen 
Africa  to  Christianity  and  civilization.  No  man  had  a 
keener  sympathy  with  even  the  most  barbarous  and  unen- 
lightened ;  none  had  a  more  ardent  desire  to  benefit  and 
improve  the  most  abject.  In  his  aims,  no  man  attempted, 
on  a  grander  or  more  thorough  scale,  to  benefit  and  im- 
prove those  of  his  race  who  most  needed  improvement 
and  light.  In  the  execution  of  what  he  undertook,  I 
never  met  his  equal  for  energy  and  sagacity,  and  I  feel 
sure  that  future  ages  will  place  him  among  the  very  first 
of  those  missionaries,  who,  following  the  apostles,  have 
continued  to  carry  the  light  of  the  gospel  to  the  darkest 
regions  of  the  world,  throughout  the  last  1800  years.  As 
regards  the  value  of  the  work  he  accomplished,  it  might 
be  premature  to  speak, — not  that  I  think  it  possible  I  can 
over-estimate  it,  but  because  I  feel  sure  that  every  year  will 
add  fresh  evidence  to  show  how  well-considered  were  the 
plans  he  took  in  hand,  and  how  vast  have  been  the  results 
of  the  movements  he  set  in  motion." 

The  generous  and  hearty  appreciation  of  Livingstone 
by  the  medical  profession  was  well  expressed  in  the  words 
of  the  Lancet :  "  Few  men  have  disappeared  from  our 
ranks  more  universally  deplored,  as  few  have  served  in 
them  with  a  higher  purpose,  or  shed  upon  them  the  lustre 
of  a  purer  devotion." 

Lord  Polwarth,  in  acknowledging  a  letter  from  Dr.  Liv- 
ingstone's daughter,  thanking  him  for  some  words  on  her 
father,  wrote  thus :  "  I  have  long  cherished  the  memory  of 
his  example,  and  feel  that  the  truest  beauty  was  his  essen- 
tially Christian  spirit.  Many  admire  in  him  the  great 
explorer  and  the  noble-hearted  philanthropist ;  but  I  like 
to  think  of  him,  not  only  thus,  but  as  a  man  who  was  a 


FBOM  VNYANYEMBE  TO  BANOWEOLO.      477 

servant  of  God,  loved  his  Word  intensely,  and  while  he 
spoke  to  men  of  God,  spoke  more  to  God  of  men. 

"  His  memory  will  never  perish,  though  the  first  fresh- 
ness, and  the  impulse  it  gives  just  now,  may  fade;  but 
his  prayers  will  be  had  in  everlasting  remembrance,  and 
unspeakable  blessings  will  yet  flow  to  that  vast  continent 
he  opened  up  at  the  expense  of  his  life.  God  called  and 
qualified  him  for  a  noble  work,  which,  by  grace,  he  nobly 
fulfilled,  and  we  can  love  the  honored  servant,  and  adore 
the  gracious  Master." 

Lastly,  we  give  the  beautiful  wreath  of  Florence  Night- 
ingale, also  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Dr.  Livingstone^s 
daughter : 

"  London,  Feb.  18<A,  1874. 

"Dear  Miss  Livingstone, — I  am  only  one  of  all 
England  which  is  feeling  with  you  and  for  you  at  this 
moment. 

"  But  Sir  Bartle  Frere  encourages  me  to  write  to  you. 

"  We  cannot  help  still  yearning  to  hear  of  some  hope 
that  your  great  father  may  be  still  alive. 

"  God  knows ;  and  in  knowing  that  He  knows  who  is  all 
wisdom,  goodness,  and  power,  we  must  find  our  rest. 

"He  has  taken  away,  if  at  last  it  be  as  we  fear,  the 
greatest  man  of  his  generation,  for  Dr.  Livingstone  stood 
alone. 

"There  are  few  enough,  but  a  few  statesmen.  There 
are  few  enough,  but  a  few  great  in  medicine,  or  in  art,  or 
in  poetry.  There  are  a  few  great  travelers.  But  Dr. 
Livingstone  stood  alone  as  the  great  Missionary  Traveler, 
the  bringer-in  of  civilization ;  or  rather  the  pioneer  of 
civilization — he  that  cometh  before — to  races  lying  in 
darkness. 

"I  always  think  of  him  as  what  John  the  Baptist, 
had  he  been  living  in  the  nineteenth  century,  would  have 
been. 

**Dr.  Livingstone's  £am©  was  so  world-wide  that  there 


478  DAVID  LIVINGSTONK 

were  other  naiions  who  understood  him  even  better  than 
we  did. 

"  Learned  philologists  from  Germany,  not  at  all 
orthodox  in  their  opinions,  have  yet  told  me  that  Dr. 
Livingstone  was  the  only  man  who  understood  races,  and 
how  to  deal  with  them  for  good;  that  he  was  the  one  true 
missionary.  We  cannot  console  ourselves  for  our  loss. 
He  is  irreplaceable. 

"It  is  not  sad  that  he  should  have  died  out  there. 
Perhaps  it  was  the  thing,  much  as  he  yearned  for  home, 
that  was  the  fitting  end  for  him.  He  may  have  felt  it  so 
himself. 

"  But  would  that  he  could  have  completed  that  which 
he  offered  his  life  to  God  to  do ! 

"If  God  took  him,  however,  it  was  that  his  life  was 
completed  in  God's  sight;  his  work  finished,  the  most 
glorious  work  of  our  generation. 

"  He  has  opened  those  countries  for  God  to  enter  in 
He  struck  the  first  blow  to  abolish  a  hideous  slave-trade. 

"  He,  like  Stephen,  was  the  first  martyr. 

"  *  He  climbed  the  steep  ascent  of  heaven, 
Through  peril,  toil,  and  pain; 
0  God  I  to  us  may  grace  be  given 
To  follow  in  his  train  1' 

"  To  US  it  is  very  dreary,  not  to  have  seen  him  again, 
that  he  should  have  had  none  of  us  by  him  at  the  last ; 
no  last  word  or  message. 

"  I  feel  this  with  regard  to  my  dear  father  and  one  who 
was  more  than  mother  to  me,  Mrs.  Bracebridge,  who  went 
with  me  to  the  Crimean  war,  both  of  whom  were  taken 
from  me  last  month. 

"  How  much  more  must  we  feel  it,  with  regard  to  our 
great  discoverer  and  hero,  dying  so  far  off ! 

"But  does  he  regret  it?  How  much  he  must  know  now  I 
how  much  he  must  have  enjoyed  I 


FROM  UNYANYEMBE  TO  BANGWEOLO.     479 

"Though  how  much  we  would  give  to  know  hu 
thoughts,  alone  with  God,  during  the  latter  days  of  his  life. 

"May  we  not  say,  with  old  Baxter  (something  altered 
from  that  verse)  ? 

"  *  My  knowledge  of  that  life  is  email, 
The  eye  of  faith  is  dim  ; 
But  'tie  enough  that  Christ  knows  ally  " 

And  he  will  be  with  Him.^ 

"Let  us  think  only  of  him  and  of  his  present  hap- 
piness, his  eternal  happiness,  and  may  God  say  to  us: 
'Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.'  Let  us  exchange  a 
*God  bless  you/  and  fetch  a  real  blessing  from  God  ia 
saying  so. 

"  Florence  Nightingale." 


480  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCB. 

History  of  his  life  not  completed  at  his  death — Thrilling  effect  of  the  tragedy 
of  Ilala — Livingstone's  influence  on  the  slave-trade — His  letters  from  Man* 
yuema — Sir  Bartle  Frere's  mission  to  Zanzibar — Successful  efforts  of  Dr.  Kirk 
with  Sultan  of  Zanzibar — The  land  route — The  sea  route — Slave-trade 
declared  illegal — Egypt — The  Soudan — Colonel  Gordon — Conventions  with 
Turkey — King  Mtesa  of  Uganda — Nyassa  district — Introduction  of  lawful 
ronunerce — Various  commercial  enterprises  in  progress — Influence  of  Liv- 
ingstone on  exploration  —  Enterprise  of  newspapers  —  Exploring  under- 
takings of  various  nations — Livingstone's  personal  service  to  science— 
His  hard  work  in  science  the  cause  of  respect — His  influence  on  missionary 
enterprise — Livingstonia — Dr.  Stewart. — Mr.  E.  D.  Young — Blantyre— 
The  Universities  Mission  under  Bishop  Steere — Its  return  to  the  mainland 
and  to  Nya.ssa  district — Church  Missionary  Society  at  Nyanza — London 
Missionary  Society  at  Tanganyika — French,  Inland,  Baptist,  and  American 
missions — Medical  missions — The  Fisk  Livingstone  hall — Livingstone's 
great  legacy  to  Africa,  a  spotless  Christian  name  and  character — Houoii*  of 
the  future. 

The  heart  of  David  Livingstone  was  laid  under  the 
mvula-tree  in  Ilala,  and  his  bones  in  Westminster  Abbey ; 
but  his  spirit  marched  on.  The  history  of  his  life  is  not 
completed  with  the  record  of  his  death.  The  continual 
cry  of  his  heart  to  be  permitted  to  finish  his  work  was 
answered,  answered  thoroughly,  though  not  in  the  way 
he  thought  of  The  thrill  that  went  through  the  civilized 
world  when  his  death  and  all  its  touching  circumstances 
became  known,  did  more  for  Africa  than  he  could  have 
done  had  he  completed  his  task  and  spent  years  in  this 
country  following  it  up.  From  the  worn-out  figure 
kneeling  at  the  bedside  in  the  hut  in  Ilala  an  electric 
spark  seemed  to  fly,  quickening  hearts  on  every  side. 
The  statesman  felt  it ;  it  put  new  vigor  into  the  despatches 


POSTHUMOUS  INFLUENCE.  481 

he  wrote  and  the  measures  he  devised  with  regard 
to  the  slave-trade.  The  merchant  felt  it,  and  began  if 
plan  in  earnest  how  to  traverse  the  continent  with 
roads  and  railways,  and  open  it  to  commerce  from 
shore  to  centre.  The  explorer  felt  it,  and  started  with 
high  purpose  on  new  scenes  of  unknown  danger.  The 
missionary  felt  it, — felt  it  a  reproof  of  past  languor  and 
unbelief,  and  found  himself  lifted  up  to  a  higher  level  of 
faith  and  devotion.  No  parliament  of  philanthropy  was 
held ;  bat  the  verdict  was  as  unanimous  and  as  hearty 
as  if  the  Christian  world  had  met  and  passed  the  resolu- 
tion— "  Livingstone's  work  shall  not  die :     Africa  shall 

LIVE." 

A  rapid  glance  at  the  progress  of  events  during  the 
seven  years  that  have  elapsed  since  the  death  of  Living- 
stone will  show  best  what  influence  he  wielded  after 
his  death.  Whether  we  consider  the  steps  that  have 
been  taken  to  suppress  the  slave-trade,  the  progress  of 
commercial  undertakings,  the  successful  journeys  of  ex- 
plorers stimulated  by  his  example  who  have  gone  from 
shore  to  shore,  or  the  new  enterprises  of  the  various 
missionary  bodies,  carried  out  by  agents  with  somewhat  of 
Livingstone's  spirit,  we  shall  see  what  a  wonderful  revo- 
lution he  effected, — how  entirely  he  changed  the  prospects 
of  Africa. 

Livingstone  himself  had  the  impression  that  his  long 
and  weary  detention  in  Manyuema  was  designed  by 
Providence  to  enable  him  to  know  and  proclaim  to  the 
world  the  awful  horrors  of  the  slave-trade.  When  his 
despatches  and  letters  from  that  region  were  published  in 
this  country,  the  matter  was  taken  up  in  the  highest 
quarters.  After  the  Queen's  Speech  had  drawn  the 
attention  of  Parliament  to  it,  a  Royal  Commission,  and 
then  a  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  pre* 
pared  the  way  for  further  action.  Sir  Bartle  Frere  was 
•ent  to  Zanzibar,  with  the  view  of  negotiating  a  treaty 


482  DAVID  LIVINGSTONR 

with  the  Sultan,  to  render  illegal  all  traffic  in  slaves  by 
sea.  Sir  Bartle  was  unable  to  persuade  the  Sultan,  but 
left  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Kirk,  who  succeeded 
in  1873  in  negotiating  the  treaty,  and  got  the  shipment 
of  slaves  prohibited  over  a  sea-board  of  nearly  a  thousand 
miles.  But  the  slave-dealer  was  too  clever  to  yield; 
for  the  route  by  sea  he  simply  substituted  a  route  by 
land,  which,  instead  of  diminishing  the  horrors  of  the 
traffic,  actually  made  them  greater.  Dr.  Kirk's  energies 
had  to  be  employed  in  getting  the  land  traffic  placed  in 
the  same  category  as  that  by  sea,  and  here,  too,  he  was 
successful,  so  that  within  the  dominions  of  the  Sultan  of 
Zanzibar,  the  slave-trade,  as  a  legal  enterprise,  came  to 
an  end. 

But  Zanzibar  was  but  a  fragment  of  Africa.  In  no 
other  part  of  the  continent  was  it  of  more  importance  that 
the  traffic  should  be  arrested  than  in  Egypt,  and  in  parts 
of  the  Empire  of  Turkey  in  Africa  under  the  control  of 
the  Sultan.  The  late  Khedive  of  Egypt  was  hearty  in  the 
cause,  less,  perhaps,  from  dislike  of  the  slave-trade,  than 
from  his  desire  to  hold  good  rank  among  the  Western 
powers,  and  to  enjoy  the  favorable  opinion  of  England. 
By  far  the  most  important  contribution  of  the  Khedive  to 
the  cause  lay  in  his  committing  the  vast  region  of  the 
Soudan  to  the  hands  of  our  countryman.  Colonel  Gordon, 
whose  recent  resignation  of  the  office  has  awakened  so 
general  regret.  Hating  the  slave-trade.  Colonel  Gordon 
employed  his  remarkable  influence  over  native  chiefs  and 
tribes  in  discouraging  it,  and  with  great  effect.  To  use  his 
own  words,  recently  spoken  to  a  friend,  he  cut  off  the 
slave-dealers  in  their  strongholds,  and  he  made  all  his 
people  love  him.  Few  men,  indeed,  have  shown  more  of 
Livingstone's  spirit  in  managing  the  natives  than  Gordon 
Pasha,  or  furnished  better  proof  that  for  really  dcing  away 
with  the  slave-trade  more  is  needed  than  a  good  treaty- 
there  must  be  a  hearty  and  influential  Executive  to  Cftrrj 


POSTHUMOUS  INFLUENCE.  483 

out  its  provisions.  Our  conventions  with  Turkey  have 
come  to  little  or  nothing.  They  have  shared  the  usual 
fate  of  Turkish  promises.  Even  the  convention  announced 
with  considerable  confidence  in  the  Queen's  speech  on  5th 
February,  1880,  if  the  tenor  of  it  be  as  it  has  been  reported 
in  the  Temps  newspaper,  leaves  far  too  much  in  the  hands 
of  the  Turks,  and  unless  it  be  energetically  and  constantly 
enforced  by  this  country,  will  fail  in  its  object.  To  this 
end,  however,  we  trust  that  the  attention  of  our  Govern- 
ment will  be  earnestly  directed.  The  Turkish  traffic  is 
particularly  hateful,  for  it  is  carried  on  mainly  for  pur- 
poses of  sensuality  and  show. 

The  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  by  King  Mtesa,  chief 
of  Waganda,  near  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza,  is  one  of  the 
most  recent  fruits  of  the  agitation.  The  services  of  Mr. 
Mackay,  a  countryman  of  Livingstone's,  and  an  agent  of 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  contributed  mainly  to  this 
remarkable  result. 

Such  facts  show  that  not  only  has  the  slave-trade  become 
illegal  in  some  of  the  separate  states  of  Africa ,  but  that 
an  active  spirit  has  been  roused  against  it,  which,  if  duly 
directed,  may  yet  achieve  much  more.  The  trade,  however, 
breeds  a  reckless  spirit,  which  cares  little  for  treaties  or 
enactments,  and  is  ready  to  continue  the  traffic  as  a  smug- 
gling business  after  it  has  been  declared  illegal.  In  the 
Nyassa  district,  from  which  to  a  large  extent  it  has  dis- 
appeared, it  is  by  no  means  suppressed.  It  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  it  may  revive  after  the  temporary  alarm  of 
the  dealers  has  subsided.  The  remissness,  and  even  the 
connivance,  of  the  Portuguese  authorities  has  been  a  great 
hindrance  to  its  abolition.  All  who  desire  to  carry  out 
the  noble  object  of  Livingstone's  life  will  therefore  do  well 
to  urge  her  Majesty's  Ministers,  members  of  Parliament, 
and  all  who  have  influence,  to  renewed  and  unremitting 
efforts  toward  the  complete  and  final  abolition  of  the 
traffic  throughout  the  whole  of  Africa.    To  this  consumma- 


484  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

tion  the  honor  of  Great  Britain  is  conspicuously  pledged, 
and  it  is  one  to  which  statesmen  of  all  parties  have  usually 
been  proud  to  contribute. 

If  we  pass  from  the  slave-trade  to  the  promotion  of 
lawful  commerce,  we  find  the  influence  of  Livingstone 
hardly  less  apparent  in  not  a  few  undertakings  recently 
begun.  Animated  by  the  memory  of  his  four  months' 
fellowship  with  Livingstone,  Mr.  Stanley  has  undertaken 
the  exploration  of  the  Congo  or  Livingstone  River,  be- 
cause it  was  a  work  that  Livingstone  desired  to  be  done. 
With  a  body  of  Kroomen  and  others  he  is  now  at  work 
making  a  road  from  near  Banza  Noki  to  Stanley  Pool. 
He  takes  a  steamer  in  sections  to  be  put  together  above 
the  Falls,  and  with  it  he  intends  to  explore  and  to  open 
to  commerce  the  numerous  great  navigable  tributaries  of 
the  Livingstone  River.  Mr.  Stanley  has  already  established 
steam  communication  between  the  French  station  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Congo  and  his  own  station  near  Banza 
Noki  or  Embomma.  The  "  Livingstone  Central  African 
Company,  Limited,"  with  Mr.  James  Stevenson,  of  Glasgow, 
as  chairman,  has  constructed  a  road  along  the  Murchison 
Rapids,  thus  making  the  original  route  of  Livingstone 
available  between  Quilimane  and  the  Nyassa  district,  and 
is  doing  much  more  to  advance  Christian  civilization. 
France,  Belgium,  Germany,  and  Italy  have  all  been  active 
in  promoting  commercial  schemes.  A  magnificent  pro- 
posal has  been  made,  under  French  auspices,  for  a  railway 
across  the  Soudan.  There  is  a  proposal  from  Manchester 
to  connect  the  great  lakes  with  the  sea  by  a  railway  from 
the  coast  opposite  Zanzibar.  Another  scheme  is  for  a  rail- 
way from  the  Zambesi  to  Lake  Nyassa.  A  telegraph 
through  Egypt  has  been  projected  to  the  South  African 
colonies  of  Britain,  passing  by  Nyassa  and  Shire.  An 
Italian  colony  on  a  large  scale  has  been  projected  in  the 
dominions  of  Menelek,  king  of  Shoa,  near  "^he  Somali 
land.     Any  statement  of  the  various  commercial  ticbemes 


POSTHUMOUS  INFLUENCE.  485 

begun  or  contemplated  would  probably  be  defective,  because 
new  enterprises  are  so  often  appearing.  But  all  this  shows 
what  a  new  light  has  burst  on  the  commercial  world  as  to 
the  capabilities  of  Africa  in  a  trading  point  of  view. 
There  seems,  indeed,  no  reason  why  Africa  should  not 
furnish  most  of  the  products  which  at  present  we  derive 
from  India.  As  a  market  for  our  manufactures,  it  is  capa- 
ble, even  with  a  moderate  amount  of  civilization,  of  be- 
coming one  of  our  most  extensive  customers.  The  voice 
that  proclaimed  these  things  in  1857  was  the  voice  of  one 
crying  in  the  wilderness;  but  it  is  now  repeated  in  a 
thousand  echoes. 

In  stimulating  African  exploration  the  influence  of  Liv- 
ingstone was  very  decided.  He  was  the  first  of  the  galaxy 
of  modern  African  travelers,  for  both  in  the  Geographical 
Society  and  in  the  world  at  large  his  name  became  famous 
before  those  of  Baker,  Grant,  Speke,  Burton,  Stanley,  and 
Cameron.  Stanley,  inspired  first  by  the  desire  of  finding 
him,  became  himself  a  remarkable  and  successful  traveler. 
The  same  remark  is  applicable  to  Cameron.  Not  only  did 
Livingstone  stimulate  professed  geographers,  but,  what  was 
truly  a  novelty  in  the  annals  of  exploration,  he  set  news- 
paper companies  to  open  up  Africa.  The  New  York  Heraldy 
having  found  Livingstone,  became  hungry  for  new  dis- 
coveries, and  enlisting  a  brother-in-arms,  Mr.  Edwin  Ar- 
nold and  the  Daily  Telegraph,  the  two  papers  united  to 
send  Mr.  Stanley  "to  fresh  woods  and  pastures  new." 
Under  the  auspices  of  the  African  Exploration  Society, 
and  the  directions  of  the  Royal  Geographical,  Mr.  Keith 
Johnston  and  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson  undertook  the  explor- 
ation of  the  country  between  Dar  es  Salaam  and  Lake 
Nyassa,  the  former  falling  a  victim  to  illness,  the  latter 
penetrating  through  unexplored  regions  to  Nyassa,  and 
subsequently  extending  his  journey  to  Tanganyika.  We 
can  but  name  the  international  enterprise  resulting  from 
the  Brussels  Conference;  the  French  researches  of  Lieu- 


4S6  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

tenant  de  Semelle  and  of  de  Brazza ;  the  various  German 
Expeditions  of  Dr.  Lenz,  Dr.  Pogge,  Dr.  Fischer,  and  Herr 
Denhardts ;  and  the  Portuguese  exploration  on  the  west, 
from  Benguela  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Zambesi.  Africa 
does  not  want  for  explorers,  and  generally  they  are  men 
bent  on  advancing  legitimate  commerce  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  people.  It  would  be  a  comfort  if  we  could 
think  of  all  as  having  this  for  their  object ;  but  tares,  we 
fear,  will  always  be  mingled  with  the  good  seed ;  and  if 
there  have  been  travelers  who  have  led  immoral  lives  and 
sought  their  own  amusent  only,  and  traders  who  by 
trafficking  in  rum  and  such  things  have  demoralized  the 
natives,  they  have  only  shown  that  in  some  natures 
selfishness  is  too  deeply  imbedded  to  be  affected  by  the 
noblest  examples. 

Livingstone    himself   traveled    twenty-nine    thousand 
miles   in  Africa,  and  added   to   the  known  part  of  the 
globe  about  a  million  square  miles.     He  discovered  Lakes 
'Ngami,   Shirwa,   Nyassa,   Moero,  and    Bangweolo;    the 
upper  Zambesi,  and  many  other  rivers ;  made  known  the 
wonderful  Victoria  Falls;  also  the  high  ridges  flanking 
the  depressed  basin  of  the  central  plateau;  he  was  the 
first  European    to   traverse    the  whole   length  of    Lake 
Tanganyika,  and  to  give  it  its  true  orientation ;  he  traversed 
in  much  pain  and  sorrow  the  vast  watershed  near  Lake 
Bangweolo,  and,  through  no  fault  of  his  own,  just  missed 
the  information  that  would  have  set  at  rest  all  his  sur- 
mises about  the  sources  of  the  Nile.     His  discoveries  were 
never  mere  happy  guesses  or  vague  descriptions  from  the 
accounts  of  natives;  each  spot  was  determined  with  the 
utmost  precision,  though  at  the  time  his  head  might  be 
giddy  from  fever  or  his  body  tormented  with  pain.     He 
strove  after  an  accurate  notion  of  the  form  and  structure 
of  the  continent;  investigated  its  geology,  hydrography, 
botany,  and  zoology;  and  grappled  with  the  two  great 
y  enemies  of  man  and  beast  that  Drey  on  it — fever  and 


POSTHUMOUS  INFLUENCE.  487 

tsetse.  Yet  all  these  were  matters  apart  from  the  great 
business  of  his  life.  In  science  he  was  neither  amateur 
nor  dilettante,  but  a  careful,  patient,  laborious  worker. 
And  hence  his  high  position,  and  the  respect  he  inspired 
in  the  scientific  world.  Small  men  might  peck  and  nibble 
at  him,  but  the  true  kings  of  science, — the  Owens,  Mur- 
chisons,  Herschels,  Sedgwicks,  and  Fergussons — honored 
him  the  more  the  longer  they  knew  him.  We  miss  an. 
important  fact  in  his  life  if  we  do  not  take  note  of  the 
*»mpression  which  he  made  on  such  men. 

Last,  but  not  least,  we  note  the  marvelous  expansion 
o;*^  missionary  enterprise  in  Africa  since  Livingstone's 
death.  Though  he  used  no  sensational  methods  of  appeal, 
he  had  a  wonderful  power  to  draw  men  to  the  mission 
field.  In  his  own  quiet  way,  he  not  only  enlisted 
recruits,  but  inspired  them  with  the  enthusiasm  of  their 
calling.  Not  even  Charles  Simeon,  during  his  long  resi- 
dence at  Cambridge,  sent  more  men  to  India  than  Living- 
stone drew  to  Africa  in  his  brief  visit  to  the  Universities. 
It  seemed  as  if  he  suddenly  awakened  the  minds  of  young 
men  to  a  new  view  of  the  grand  purposes  of  life.  Mr. 
Monk  wrote  to  him  truly,  "  That  Cambridge  visit  of  yours 
lighted  a  candle  which  will  never,  never  go  out." 

At  the  time  of  his  death  there  was  no  missionary  at 
work  in  the  great  region  of  Shire  and  Nyassa  on  which 
his  heart  was  so  much  set.  The  first  to  take  possession 
were  his  countrymen  of  Scotland.  The  Livingstonia 
mission  and  settlement  of  the  Free  Church,  planned  by 
Dr.  Stewart,  of  Lovedale,  who  had  gone  out  to  reconnoitre 
in  1863,  and  begun  in  1875,  has  now  three  stations  on 
the  lake,  and  has  won  the  highest  commendation  of  such 
travelers  as  the  late  Consul  Elton.^  Much  of  the  success 
of  this  enterprise  is  due  to  Livingstone's  old  comrade, 
Mr.  E.  D.  Young,  R.N.,  who  led  the  party,  and  by  his 
great  experience   and  wonderful   way  of  managing  the 

^  Lakes  and  Mountains  of  Africa,  pp.  277,  280. 


488  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

natives,  laid  not  only  the  founders  of  Livingstonia,  but 
the  friends  of  Africa,  under  obligations  that  have  never 
been  sufficiently  acknowledged.*  In  concert  with  the 
"Livingstone  Central  African  Company,"  considerable 
progress  has  been  made  in  exploring  the  neighboring 
regions,  and  the  recent  exploit  of  Mr.  James  Stewart, 
C.E.,  one  of  the  lay  helpers  of  the  Mission,  in  traversing 
the  country  between  Nyassa  and  Tanganyika,  is  an  im- 
portant contribution  to  geography.^  It  would  have  grati- 
fied Livingstone  to  think  that  in  conducting  this  settlement 
several  of  the  Scotch  Churches  were  practically  at  one — 
Free,  Reformed,  and  United  Presbyterian ;  while  at  Blan- 
tyre,  on  the  Shire,  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland,  with 
a  mission  and  a  colony  of  mechanics,  has  taken  its  share 
in  the  work. 

Under  Bishop  Steere,  the  successor  of  Bishop  Tozer,  the 
Universities  Mission  has  re-occupied  part  of  the  mainland, 
and  the  freed-slave  village  of  Masasi,  situated  between  the 
sea  and  Nyassa,  to  the  north  of  the  Kovuma,  enjoys  a 
measure  of  prosperity  which  has  never  been  interrupted 
during  the  three  or  four  years  of  its  existence.  Other 
stations  have  been  formed,  or  are  projected,  one  of  them 
on  the  eastern  margin  of  the  lake.  The  Church  Missionary 
Society  has  occupied  the  shores  of  Victoria  Nyanza, 
achieving  great  results  amid  many  trials  and  sacrifices,  at 
first  wonderfully  aided  and  encouraged  by  King  Mtesa, 
though,  as  we  write,  we  hear  accounts  of  a  change  of 
policy  which  is  grievously  disappointing.  Lake  Tangan- 
yika has  been  occupied  by  the  London  Missionary  Society. 

The  "Societe  des  Missions  Evangeliques,"  of  Paris,  has 
made  preparations  for  occupying  the  Barotse  Valley,  near 
the  head-waters  of  the  Zambesi.  The  Livingstone  Inland 
Mission  has  some  missionaries  on  the  Atlantic  Coast  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  and  others  who  are  working 

See  his  work.     Nyassa:  London,  1877. 
*See  Transactions  of  Royal  Geographual  Socuty,  1880, 


POSTHUMOUS  INFLUENCE,  489 

inward,  while  a  monthly  journal  is  edited  by  Mrs. 
Grattan  Guinness,  entitled  The  Regions  Beyond.  The 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  has  a  mission  in  the  same 
district,  toward  the  elucidation  of  which  the  Rev.  J.  T. 
Comber's  Explorations  Inland  frorri  Mount  Cameroons  and 
through  Congo  to  Mkouta  have  thrown  considerable  light. 

More  recently  still,  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions,  having  resolved  to  devote  to 
Africa  Mr.  Otis's  munificent  bequest  of  a  million  dollars, 
appointed  the  Rev.  Dr.  Means  to  collect  information  as  to 
the  most  suitable  openings  for  missions  in  Central  Africa ; 
and  on  his  recommendation,  after  considering  the  claims 
of  seven  other  localities,  have  decided  to  adopt  as  their 
field  the  region  of  Bihe  and  the  Coanza,  an  upland  tract 
to  the  east  of  Benguela,  healthy  and  suitable  for  European 
colonization,  and  as  yet  not  occupied  by  any  missionary 
body.  Thus  the  Old  World  and  the  New  are  joining  their 
forces  for  the  evangelization  of  Africa.  And  they  are  not 
only  occupying  regions  which  Livingstone  recommended, 
but  are  trying  to  work  his  principle  of  combining  coloni- 
zation with  missions,  so  as  to  give  their  people  an  actual 
picture  of  Christianity  as  it  is  exemplified  in  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life. 

Besides  missions  on  the  old  principle.  Medical  Missions 
have  received  a  great  impulse  through  Livingstone. 
"When  mission  work  in  Central  Africa  began  to  be  seriously 
entertained,  men  like  Dr.  Laws,  the  late  Dr.  Black,  and 
the  late  Dr.  Smith,  all  medical  missionaries,  were  among 
the  first  to  offer  their  services.  The  Edinburgh  Medical 
Mission  made  quite  a  new  start  when  it  gave  the  name  of 
Livingstone  to  its  buildings.  Another  institution  that 
has  adopted  the  name  for  a  hall  in  which  to  train  colored 
people  for  African  work  is  the  Fisk  University,  Tennessee, 
made  famous  by  the  Jubilee  Singers. 

In  glancing  at  these  results  of  Livingstone's  influence 
in  the  mission  field,  we  must  not  forget  that  of  all  hia 


490  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

legacies  to  Africa  by  far  the  highest  was  the  spotless  name 
and  bright  Christian  character  which  have  become  associ- 
ated everywhere  with  its  great  missionary  explorer.  From 
the  first  day  of  his  sojourn  in  Africa  to  the  last,  "  patient 
continuance  in  well-doing"  was  the  great  charm  through 
which  he  sought,  with  God^s  blessing,  to  win  the  confidence 
of  Africa.  Before  the  poorest  African  he  maintained  self- 
restraint  and  self-respect  as  carefully  as  in  the  best  society 
at  home.  No  prevailing  relaxation  of  the  moral  code  in 
those  wild,  dark  regions  ever  lowered  his  tone  or  lessened 
his  regard  for  the  proprieties  of  Christian  or  civilized  life. 
Scandal  is  so  rampant  among  the  natives  of  Africa  that 
even  men  of  high  character  have  sometimes  suffered  from 
its  lying  tongue ;  but  in  the  case  of  Livingstone  there  was 
such  an  enamel  of  purity  upon  his  character  that  no  filth 
could  stick  to  it,  and  none  was  thrown.  What  Livingstone 
did  in  order  to  keep  his  word  to  his  poor  attendants  was  ?.. 
wonder  in  Africa,  as  it  was  the  admiration  of  the  world. 
His  way  of  trusting  them,  too,  was  singularly  winning. 
He  would  go  up  to  a  fierce  chief,  surrounded  by  his  grin- 
ning warriors,  with  the  same  easy  gait  and  kindly  smile 
with  which  he  would  have  approached  his  friends  at 
Kuruman  or  Hamilton.  It  was  the  highest  tribute  that 
the  slave-traders  in  the  Zambesi  district  paid  to  his 
character  when  for  their  own  vile  ends  they  told  the 
people  that  they  were  the  children  of  Livingstone.  It  was 
the  charm  of  his  name  that  enabled  Mr.  E.  D.  Young, 
while  engaged  in  founding  the  Livingstonia  settlement,  to 
obtain  six  hundred  carriers  to  transport  the  pieces  of  the 
Ilala  steamer  past  the  Murchison  Cataracts,  carrying 
loads  of  great  weight  for  forty  miles,  at  six  yards  of  calico 
each,  without  a  single  piece  of  the  vessel  being  lost  or 
thrown  away.  The  noble  conduct  of  the  band  that  for 
eight  months  carried  his  remains  toward  the  coast  was  a 
crowning  proof  of  the  love  he  inspired. 

Nearly  every  day  some  new  token  comes  to  light  of 


POSTHUMOUS  INFLUENCE.  491 

the  affection  and  honor  with  which  he  was  regarded  all 
over  Central  Africa.  On  12th  April,  1880,  the  Rev. 
Chauncy  Maples,  of  the  Universities  Mission,  in  a  paper 
read  to  the  Geographical  Society,  describing  a  journey  to 
the  Rovuma  and  the  Makonde  country,  told  of  a  man  he 
found  there,  with  the  relic  of  an  old  coat  over  his  right 
shoulder,  evidently  of  English  manufacture.  It  turned 
out,  from  the  man's  statement,  that  ten  years  ago  a  white 
man,  the  donor  of  the  coat,  had  traveled  with  him  to 
Mataka's,  whom  to  have  once  seen  and  talked  with  was 
to  remember  for  life ;  a  white  man  who  treated  black  men 
as  his  brothers,  and  whose  memory  would  be  cherished 
all  along  the  Rovuma  Valley  after  they  were  all  dead  and 
gone ;  a  short  man  with  a  bushy  moustache,  and  a  keen 
piercing  eye,  whose  words  were  always  gentle,  and  whose 
manners  were  always  kind ;  whom,  as  a  leader,  it  was  a 
privilege  to  follow,  and  who  knew  the  way  to  the  hearts 
of  all  men. 

That  early  and  life-long  prayer  of  Livingstone's — that 
he  might  resemble  Christ — was  fulfilled  in  no  ordinary 
degree.  It  will  be  an  immense  benefit  to  all  future  mis- 
sionaries in  Africa  that,  in  explaining  to  the  people  what 
practical  Christianity  means,  they  will  have  but  to  point 
to  the  life  and  character  of  the  man  whose  name  will 
stand  first  among  African  benefactors  in  centuries  to  come. 
A  foreigner  has  remarked  that,  "  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  white  has  made  a  man  out  of  the  black; 
in  the  twentieth  century,  Europe  will  make  a  world  out 
of  Africa.^  When  that  world  is  made,  and  generation 
after  generation  of  intelligent  Africans  look  back  on  its 
beginnings,  as  England  looks  back  on  the  days  of  King 
Alfred,  Ireland  of  St.  Patrick,  Scotland  of  St.  Columba,  or 
the  United  States  of  George  Washington,  the  name  that 
will  be  encircled  by  them  with  brightest  honor  is  that 
of  David  Livingstone.  Mabotsa,  Chonuane,  and  Kolo- 
beng  will  be  visited  with  thrilling  interest  by  maaiy  a 


492  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

pilgrim,  and  some  grand  memorial  pile  in  Ilala  will  mark 
the  spot  where  his  heart  reposes.  And  when  preachers 
and  teachers  speak  of  this  man,  when  fathers  tell  their 
children  what  Africa  owes  to  him,  and  when  the  question 
is  asked  what  made  him  so  great  and  so  good,  the  answer 
will  be,  that  he  lived  by  the  faith  of  the  Son.  of  God,  and 
that  the  love  of  Christ  constrained  him  to  live  and  die 
for  Africa. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  PAPER  ON  "  MISSIONARY  SACRIFICES.'^ 

It  is  something  to  be  a  missionary.  The  morning  stars  sang 
together  aod  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy,  when  they  first 
saw  the  field  which  the  first  missionary  was  to  fill.  The  great  and 
terrible  God,  before  whom  angels  veil  their  faces,  had  an  Only 
Son,  and  He  was  sent  to  the  habitable  parts  of  the  earth  as  a 
missionary  physician.  It  is  something  to  be  a  follower,  however 
feeble,  in  the  wake  of  the  Great  Teacher  and  only  Model  Mission- 
ary that  ever  appeared  among  men ;  and  now  that  He  is  Head 
over  all  things.  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  what  commission 
is  equal  to  that  which  the  missionary  holds  from  Him  ?  May  we 
venture  to  invite  young  men  of  education,  when  laying  down  the 
plan  of  their  lives,  to  take  a  glance  at  that  of  missionary  ?  We 
will  magnify  the  office. 

The  missionary  is  sent  forth  as  a  messenger  of  the  Churches, 
after  undergoing  the  scrutiny  and  securing  the  approbation  of  a 
host  of  Christian  ministers,  who,  by  their  own  talent  and  worth, 
have  risen  to  the  pastorate  over  the  most  intelligent  and  influentiaJ 
churches  in  the  land,  and  who,  moreover,  can  have  no  motive  to 
influence  their  selection  but  the  desire  to  secure  the  most  efficient 
instrumentality  for  the  missionary  work.  So  much  care  and  inde- 
pendent investigation  are  bestowed  on  the  selection  as  to  make  it 
plain  that  extraneous  influences  can  have  but  small  power.  No 
pastor  can  imagine  that  any  candidate  has  been  accepted  through 
his  recommendations,  however  warm  these  may  have  been ;  and 
the  missionary  may  go  forth  to  the  heathen,  satisfied  that  in  the 
confidence  of  the  directors  he  has  a  testimonial  infinitely  superior 
^  (493) 


494  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

to  letters-apostolic  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  or  even 
from  the  Vatican  at  Rome.  A  missionary,  surely,  cannot  under- 
value his  commission,  as  soon  as  it  is  put  into  his  hands. 

But  what  means  the  lugubrious  wail  that  too  often  bursts  from 
the  circle  of  his  friends?  The  tears  shed  might  be  excused  if 
he  were  going  to  Norfolk  Island  at  the  Government  expense. 
But  sometimes  the  missionary  note  is  pitched  on  the  same  key. 
The  white  cliffs  of  Dover  become  immensely  dear  to  those  who 
never  cared  for  masses  of  chalk  before.  Pathetic  plaints  are 
penned  about  laying  their  bones  on  a  foreign  shore,  by  those  who 
never  thought  of  making  aught  of  their  bones  at  home.  (Bone- 
dust  is  dear  nowhere,  we  think.)  And  then  there  is  the  never- 
ending  talk  and  wringing  of  hands  over  missionary  "  sacrifices." 
The  man  is  surely  going  to  be  hanged,  instead  of  going  to  serve 
in  Christ's  holy  Gospel !  Is  this  such  service  as  He  deserves  who, 
though  rich,  for  our  sakes  became  poor  ?  There  is  so  much  in  the 
manner  of  giving ;  some  bestow  their  favors  so  gracefully,  their 
value  to  the  recipient  is  doubled.  From  others,  a  gift  is  as  good 
as  a  blow  in  the  face.  Are  we  not  guilty  of  treating  our  Lord 
somewhat  more  scurvily  than  we  would  treat  our  indigent  fellow- 
men  ?  We  stereotype  the  word  "  charity"  in  our  language,  as 
applicable  to  a  contribution  to  his  cause.  *'  So  many  charities, — • 
we  cannot  afford  them.'*  Is  not  the  word  ungraciously  applied  to 
the  Lord  Jesus,  as  if  He  were  a  poor  beggar,  and  an  unworthy  one 
too  ?  His  are  the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  the  silver  and  the 
gold  ;  and  worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain.  We  treat  Him  ill. 
Bipeds  of  the  masculine  gender  assume  the  piping  phraseology  of 
poor  old  women  in  presence  of  Him  before  whom  the  Eastern 
Magi  fell  down  and  worshiped, — ay,  and  opened  their  treasures, 
and  presented  unto  Him  gifts:  gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh. 
They  will  give  their  "  mites"  as  if  what  they  do  give  were  their 
**  all."  It  is  utterly  unfair  to  magnify  the  little  we  do  for  Him  by 
calling  it  a  sacrifice,  or  pretend  we  are  doing  all  we  can  by  assum- 
ing the  tones  of  poor  widows.  He  asks  a  willing  mind,  cheerful 
obedience;  and  can  we  not  give  that  to  Him  who  made  his 
Father's  will  in  our  salvation  as  his  meat  and  his  drink,  till  He 
bowed  his  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost? 

Hundreds  of  young  men  annually  leave  our  shores  as  cadets. 
All  their  friends  rejoice  when  they  think  of  them  bearing  the 


APPENDIX.  495 

commissions  ui*  our  Queen,  When  any  danarerou?  expedition  'u 
planned  by  CTOvemment,  more  volunteers  apply  than  are  necessary 
to  man  it  On  the  proposal  to  send  a  band  of  orave  men  in  search 
of  Sir  John  Franklin,  a  full  complement  lor  the  ships  could  have 
been  procured  of  officers  alone,  without  any  common  sailors.  AjmI 
what  thousands  rushed  to  Califom^'^,  from  different  parts  of 
America,  on  the  discovery  of  the  gold !  How  many  husbands  left 
their  wives  and  families !  How  many  Christian  men  tore  them- 
selves away  from  all  home  endearments  to  suffer,  and  toil,  and 
perish  by  cold  and  starvation  on  the  overland  route !  How  many 
sank  from  fever  and  exhaustion  on  the  banks  of  Sacramento! 
Yet  no  word  of  sacrifices  there.  And  why  should  we  so  regard  all 
we  give  and  do  for  the  Well-beloved  of  our  souls  ?  Our  talk  of 
sacrifices  is  ungenerous  and  heathenish.     .     .    . 

It  is  something  to  be  a  missionary.  He  is  sometimes  inclined, 
in  seasons  of  despondency  and  trouble,  to  feel  as  if  forgotten.  Bai 
for  whom  do  more  prayers  ascend  ? — prayers  from  the  secret  place, 
and  from  those  only  who  are  known  to  God.  Mr.  Moffat  met  those 
in  England  who  had  made  his  mission  the  subject  of  special 
prayer  for  more  than  twenty  years,  though  they  had  no  personal 
knowledge  of  the  missionary.  Through  the  long  fifteen  years  of 
no  success,  of  toil  and  sorrow,  these  secret  ones  were  holding  up 
his  hands.  And  who  can  tell  how  often  his  soul  may  have  been 
refreshed  through  their  intercessions  ?    .     .     . 

It  is  something  to  be  a  missionary.  The  heart  is  expanded  and 
filled  with  generous  sympathies ;  sectarian  bigotry  is  eroded,  and 
the  spirit  of  reclusion  which  makes  it  doubtful  if  some  denomina- 
tions have  yet  made  up  their  minds  to  meet  those  who  differ  with 
them  in  heaven  loses  much  of  its  fire.    •    . 

There  are  many  puzzles  and  entanglements,  temptations,  trials, 
and  perplexities,  which  tend  to  inure  the  missionary's  virtue. 
The  difficulties  encountered  prevent  his  faith  from  growing 
languid.  He  must  walk  by  faith,  and  though  the  horizon  be  all 
dark  and  lowering,  he  must  lean  on  Him  whom,  having  not  seen, 
he  loves.  The  future — a  glorious  future — is  that  for  which  he 
labors.  It  lies  before  him  as  we  have  seen  the  lofty  coast  of 
Brazil.  No  chink  in  the  tree-covered  rocks  appears  to  the 
seaman  ;  but  he  glides  right  on.  He  works  toward  the  coast,  and 
when  he  enters  the  gateway  by  the  sugar-loaf  hill,  there  opens  to 


496  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

the  view  in  the  Bay  of  Rio  a  scene  of  luxuriance  and  beauty 
unequaled  in  the  world  beside. 

The  missionary's  head  will  lie  low,  and  others  will  have  entered 
into  his  labors,  before  his  ideal  is  realized.  The  Future  for  which 
he  works  is  one  which,  though  sure,  has  never  yet  been  seen. 
The  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the 
Lord.  The  missionary  is  a  harbinger  of  the  good  time  coming. 
When  he  preaches  the  Gospel  to  a  tribe  which  has  loiig  sat  in 
iarkness,  the  signs  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  are  displayed. 
The  glorious  Sun  of  Righteousness  is  near  the  horizon.  He  is  the 
herald  of  the  dawn,  for  come  He  will  whose  right  it  is  to  reign ; 
and  what  a  prospect  appears,  when  we  think  of  the  golden  age 
which  has  not  been,  but  must  yet  come !  Messiah  has  sat  on  the 
Hill  of  Zion  for  1800  years.  He  has  been  long  expecting  that 
his  enemies  shall  be  made  his  footstool ;  and  may  we  not  expect, 
too,  and  lift  up  our  heads,  seeing  the  redemption  of  the  world 
draweth  nigh?  The  bow  in  the  cloud  once  spread  its  majestic 
arch  over  the  smoke  of  the  fat  of  lambs  ascending  as  a  sweet- 
emelling  savor  before  God — a  sign  of  the  covenant  of  peace — and 
the  flickering  light  of  the  Shechinah  often  intimated  the  good-will 
of  Jehovah.  But  these  did  not  more  certainly  show  the  presence 
of  the  Angel  of  the  Covenant  than  does  the  shaking  among  the 
nations  the  presence  and  energy  of  God's  Holy  Spirit ;  and  to  be 
permitted  to  rank  as  a  fellow-worker  with  Him  is  a  mercy  of 
mercies.  O  Love  Divine  I  how  cold  is  our  love  to  Thee !  True, 
the  missionary  of  the  present  day  is  only  a  stepping-stone  to  the 
future;  but  what  a  privilege  he  possesses  I  He  is  known  to 
"  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit,  seen  of  angels, 
preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up 
into  Glory."     Is  that  not  enough  ? 

Who  would  not  be  a  missionary?  His  noble  enterprise  is  in 
exact  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  what  is  called  the 
spirit  01  the  age  is  simply  the  movement  of  multitudes  of  minds 
in  the  same  direction.  They  move  according  to  the  eternal  and 
all-embracing  decrees  of  God.  The  spirit  of  the  age  is  one  of 
benevolence,  and  it  manifests  itself  in  numberless  ways — ragged 
schools,  baths  and  wash-houses,  sanitary  reform,  etc.  Henoe 
missionaries  do  not  live  before  their  time.  Their  great  idea  of 
converting  the  world  to  Chriat  is  no  chimera :  it  is  Divine.    Chris- 


APPENDIX,  497 

tianity  will  triumph.  It  is  equal  to  all  it  has  to  perform.  It  is 
not  mere  enthusiasm  to  imagine  a  handful  of  missionaries  capable 
of  converting  the  millions  of  India.  How  often  they  are  cut  off 
just  after  they  have  acquired  the  language !  How  often  they 
retire  with  broken-down  constitutions  before  effecting  anything! 
How  often  they  drop  burning  tears  over  their  own  feebleness  amid 
the  defections  of  those  they  believed  to  be  converts !  Yes !  but 
that  small  band  has  the  decree  of  God  on  its  side.  Who  has  not 
admired  the  band  of  Leonidas  at  the  pass  of  Thermopylae  ?  Three 
hundred  against  three  million.  Japhet,  with  the  decree  of  God  on 
his  side,  only  300  strong,  contending  for  enlargement  with  Shem 
and  his  3,000,000.  Consider  what  b-'s  been  effected  during  the 
last  fifty  years.  There  is  no  vaunting  of  scouts  now.  No  Indian 
gentlemen  making  themselves  merry  about  the  folly  of  thinking  to 
convert  the  natives  of  India ;  magnifying  the  difficulties  of  caste ; 
and  setting  our  ministers  into  brown  studies  and  speech-making  in 
defense  of  missions.  No  mission  has  yet  been  an  entire  failure. 
We  who  see  such  small  segments  of  the  mighty  cycles  of  God's 
providence  often  imagine  some  to  be  failures  which  God  does 
not.  Eden  was  such  a  failure.  The  Old  World  was  a  failure 
under  Noah's  preaching.  Elijah  thought  it  was  all  up  with  Israel. 
Isaiah  said  :  "  Who  hath  believed  our  report,  and  to  whom  is  the 
arm  of  the  Lord  revealed?"  And  Jeremiah  wished  his  head 
were  waters,  his  eyes  a  fountain  of  tears,  to  weep  over  one  of 
God's  plans  for  diffusing  his  knowledge  among  the  heathen.  If 
we  could  see  a  larger  arc  of  the  great  providential  cycle,  we  might 
sometimes  rejoice  when  we  weep  ;  but  God  giveth  not  account  of 
•any  of  his  matters.  We  must  just  trust  to  his  wisdom.  Let  us 
do  our  duty.  He  will  work  out  a  glorious  consummation.  Fifty 
years  ago  missions  could  not  lift  up  their  heads.  But  missions 
now  are  admitted  by  all  to  be  one  of  the  great  facts  of  the  age, 
and  the  sneers  about  "  Exeter  Hall"  are  seen  by  every  one  to 
embody  a  risus  sardonicus.  The  present  posture  of  affairs  is, 
that  benevolence  is  popular.  God  is  working  out  in  the  human 
heart  his  great  idea,  and  all  nations  shall  see  his  glory.     .    .     . 

Let  us  think  highly  of  the  weapons  we  have  received  for  the 
accomplishment  of  our  work.  The  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not 
carnal  but  spiritual,  and  mighty  through  God  to  the  casting  down 
of  strongholds.    They  are — Faith  in  our  Leader,  and  in  the  pre- 


498  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

sence  of  his  Holy  Spirit;  a  full,  free,  unfettered  Gospel;  the 
doctrine  of  the  cross  of  Christ, — an  old  story,  but  containing  the 
mightiest  truths  ever  uttered — mighty  for  pulling  down  the  strong- 
holds of  sin,  and  giving  liberty  to  the  captives.  The  story  of 
Redemption,  of  which  Paul  said,  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ,"  is  old,  yet  in  its  vigor,  eternally  young. 

This  work  requires  zeal  for  God  and  love  for  souls.  It  needs 
prayer  from  the  senders  and  the  sent,  and  firm  reliance  on  Him 
who  alone  is  the  Author  of  conversion.  Souls  cannot  be  converted 
or  manufactured  to  order.  Great  deeds  are  wrought  in  uncon- 
sciousness, from  constraining  love  to  Christ ;  in  humbly  asking, 
Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  in  the  simple  feeling,  we 
have  done  that  which  was  our  duty  to  do.  They  effect  works,  the 
greatness  of  which  it  will  remain  for  posterity  to  discern.  The 
greatest  works  of  God  in  the  kingdom  of  grace,  like  his  majestic 
movements  in  nature,  are  marked  by  stillness  in  the  doing  of  them, 
and  reveal  themselves  by  their  effects.  They  come  up  like  the 
sun,  and  show  themselves  by  their  own  light.  The  kingdom  of 
God  Cometh  not  with  observation.  Luther  simply  followed  the 
leadings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  struggles  of  his  own  soul.  He 
wrought  out  what  the  inward  impulses  of  his  own  breast  prompted 
him  to  work,  and  behold,  before  he  was  aware,  he  was  in  the  midst 
of  the  Reformation.  So,  too,  it  was  with  the  Plymouth  pilgrims, 
with  their  sermons  three  times  a  day  on  board  the  Mayflower, 
Without  thinking  of  founding  an  empire,  they  obeyed  the  sublime 
teachings  of  the  Spirit,  the  promptings  of  duty  and  the  spiritual 
life.  God  working  mightily  in  the  human  heart  is  the  spring  of 
all  abiding  spiritual  power ;  and  it  is  only  as  men  follow  out  the 
sublime  promptings  of  the  inward  spiritual  life,  that  they  do  great 
things  for  God. 

The  movement  of  not  one  mind  only,  but  the  consentaneous 
movement  of  a  multitude  of  minds  in  the  same  direction,  consti- 
tutes what  is  called  the  spirit  of  the  age.  This  spirit  is  neither 
the  law  of  progress  nor  blind  development,  but  God's  all-eternal, 
all-embracing  purpose,  the  doctrine  which  recognizes  the  hand  of 
God  in  all  events,  yet  leaves  all  human  action  free.  When  God 
prepared  an  age  for  a  new  thought,  the  thought  is  thrust  into  the 
age  as  an  instrument  into  a  chemical  solution — the  crystals  cluster 
round  it  immediatelv.    If  God  prepares  not,  the  man  ^*as  liv<^ 


APPENDIX,  499 

before  his  time.  Huss  and  Wycliffe  were  like  voices  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  preparing  the  way  for  a  brighter  future ;  the  time  had 
not  yet  come. 

Who  would  not  be  a  missionary  ?  "  They  that  be  wise  shall 
shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  they  that  turn  many 
to  righteousness  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever."  Is  God  not  pre- 
paring the  world  for  missions  which  will  embrace  the  whole  of 
Adam's  family?  The  gallant  steamships  circumnavigate  the  globe. 
Emigration  is  going  on  at  a  rate  to  which  the  most  renowned 
crusades  of  antiquity  bear  no  proportion.  Many  men  go  to  and 
fro,  and  knowledge  is  increased.  No  great  emigration  ever  took 
place  in  our  world  without  accomplishing  one  of  God's  great 
designs.  The  tide  of  the  modern  emigration  flows  toward  the 
West.  The  wonderful  amalgamation  of  races  will  result  in  some- 
thing grand.  We  believe  this,  because  the  world  is  becoming 
better,  and  because  God  is  working  mightily  in  the  human  mind. 
We  believe  it,  because  God  has  been  preparing  the  world  foi 
something  glorious.  And  that  something,  we  conjecture,  will  be  a 
fuller  development  of  the  missionary  idea  and  work. 

There  will  yet  be  a  glorious  consummation  of  Christianity. 
The  last  fifty  years  have  accomplished  wonders.  On  the  American 
Continent,  what  a  wonderful  amalgamation  of  races  we  have  wit- 
nessed, how  wonderfully  they  have  been  fused  into  that  one  Ameri- 
can people — type  and  earnest  of  a  larger  fusion  which  Christianity 
will  yet  accomplish,  when,  by  its  blessed  power,  all  tribes  and 
tongues  and  races  shall  become  one  holy  family.  The  present  pop- 
ularity of  beneficence  promises  well  for  the  missionary  cause  in 
the  future.  Men's  hearts  are  undergoing  a  process  of  enlargement. 
Their  sympathies  are  taking  a  wider  scope.  The  world  is  getting 
closer,  smaller — quite  a  compact  affair.  The  world  for  Christ  will 
yet  be  realized.  "  The  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of 
the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 


No.  11. 

TREATMENT  OP  AFRICAN  FEVER. 

In  July,  1859,  when  the  Expedition  to  the  Zambesi  had  been 
there  about  a  year.  Dr.  Livingstone  drew  up  and  forwarded  to 


600  DA  VID  LIVINGSTONE, 

Sir  James  Clark,  Bart.,  M.D.,  a  very  full  report  on  the  treatment 
of  African  fever.  The  report  details  at  length  a  large  number  of 
cases,  the  circumstances  under  which  the  attack  was  experienced, 
the  remedies  administered,  and  their  effects.  In  order  to  ward  off 
the  disease  in  the  mangrove  swamps,  which  were  justly  described 
as  hotbeds  of  fever,  a  dose  of  quinine  was  administered  daily  to 
each  European,  amounting  to  two  grains,  and  taken  in  sherry 
wine.  When  an  attack  of  the  disease  occurred,  and  the  stomach 
did  not  refuse  the  remedies.  Dr.  Livingstone  administered  a  dose 
of  calomel  with  resin  of  jalap,  followed  by  quinine.  These  reme- 
dies were  in  almost  all  cases  successful,  and  the  convalescence  of 
the  patient  was  wonderfully  rapid.  The  "  pills"  which  Dr.  Liv- 
ingstone often  referred  to  were  composed  of  resin  of  jalap,  calomel, 
rhubarb,  and  quinine.  It  was  usually  observed  that  active 
employment  kept  off  fever,  and  that  on  high  lands  its  attacks 
were  much  less  violent.  Where  the  stomach  refused  the  remedies 
a  blister  was  usually  the  most  effectual  means  of  stopping  the 
sickness. 

Experience  did  not  confirm  the  prophylactic  action  of  quinine; 
exemption  from  attack  in  unfavorable  situations  was  rather 
ascribed  to  active  exercise,  good  diet,  and  to  absence  of  damp, 
exposure  to  sun,  and  excessive  exertion.  Even  while  navigating 
an  unhealthy  part  of  the  Shire,  and  while,  owing  to  the  state  of 
the  vessel,  the  beds  were  constantly  damp,  good  health  was  en- 
joyed, owing  to  the  regular  exercise  and  good  fare. 

In  the  upper  regions  of  the  Shire,  Dr.  Livingstone  says  he  and 
his  companions  were  exposed  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  to 
the  dew  from  the  long  grass,  marching  during  the  day  over  rough 
country  under  the  tropical  sun,  and  then  sleeping  in  the  open  air ; 
but  though  they  had  discontinued  the  daily  use  of  quinine  they 
were  perfectly  well,  as  were  also  their  native  attendants.  This 
was  one  of  the  considerations  that  gave  him  such  confidence  in 
the  healthiness  of  the  Shire  highlands. 

Two  or  three  years  later,  in  writing  to  a  friend,  Dr.  Livingstone 
thanked  him  for  having  sent  him  a  missionary  journal,  which  he 
greatly  enjoyed — The  News  of  the  Churches  and  Journal  of  Missions. 
To  show  the  very  unusual  pleasure  which  this  Journal  gave  him, 
he  proposed  to  send  a  communication  to  the  editor,  but  said  he 
was  somewhat  afraid  to  do  so,  lest  it  should  meet  the  fate  of 


APPENDIX.  501 

many  a  paper  forwarded  to  editors  at  an  earlier  period  of  his  life. 
Mustering  courage,  he  did  send  a  letter,  and  we  find  it  in  the 
number  of  the  journal  for  August,  1862.  It  is  entitled,  "  A  Note 
that  may  be  useful  to  Missionaries  in  Africa,"  and  consists  of  a 
statement  of  the  remedy  for  fever,  and  an  account  of  its  operation. 
He  had  been  led  to  think  of  this  from  seeing  in  the  News  of  the 
Churches  for  February,  1861,  a  reference  to  his  remedy  in  an  ac- 
count of  the  death  of  the  Helmores.  The  proportions  of  the 
several  ingredients  are  given — "  for  a  full-grown  man  six  or  eight 
grains  of  resin  of  jalap,  and  the  same  amount  of  rhubarb,  with 
four  grains  of  calomel,  and  four  of  quinine,  made  into  pills  with 
spirit  of  cardamoms.  On  taking  efiect,  quinine  (not  the  un- 
bleached kind),  in  four  grains  or  larger  doses  is  given  every  two 
hours  or  so,  till  the  ears  ring,  or  deafness  ensues ;  this  last  is  an 
essential  part  of  the  cure." 

The  last  part  of  the  letter  is  a  description  of  Lake  Nyassa,  and 
a  statement  of  its  importance  for  purposes  of  civilization  and 
Christianity. 

The  News  of  the  Churches  was  projected  in  1854  by  the  late 
Rev.  Andrew  Cameron,  D.D.,  and  the  present  writer,  and  con- 
ducted by  them  for  a  time ;  in  1862  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Rev.  Gavin  Carlyle,  now  of  Ealing. 


No.  III. 

LETTER  TO  DR.  TIDMAN,  AS  TO  FUTURE  OPERATIONS. 

QuiLiMANE,  23c?  May,  1856. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Tidman. 

Dear  Sir, — Having  by  the  good  providence  of  our  Heavenly 

Father  reached  this  village  on  the  20th  curt.,  I  was  pleased  to  find 

a  silence  of  more  than  four  years  broken  by  your  letter  of  the 

24th  August,  1855.     I  found,  also,  that  H.M.'s  brigatine  "  Dart" 

had  called  at  this  port  several  times  in  order  to  oflTer  me  a  passage 

homeward,  but  on  the  last  occason  in  which  this  most  friendly 

act  was  performed,  her  commander,  with  an  officer  of  marines  and 

five  seamen,  were  unfortunately  lost  on  the  very  dangerous  bar  at 

the  mouth  of  the  Quilimane  River.     This  sad  event  threw  a  cold 

shade  over  all  the  joy  I  might  otherwise  have  experienced  oa 


502  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

reaching  the  Eastern  Coast.  I  felt  as  if  it  would  have  been  easi«r 
for  me  to  have  died  for  them  than  to  bear  the  thought  of  so  many 
being  cut  off  from  all  the  joys  of  life  in  generously  attempting  to 
render  me  a  service.  As  there  is  no  regular  means  of  proceeding 
from  this  to  the  Cape,  I  remain  here  in  the  hope  of  meeting 
another  cruiser,  which  the  kindness  of  Commodore  Trotter  has 
led  me  to  expect,  in  preference  to  going  by  a  small  Arab  or 
Portuguese  trading  vessel  to  some  point  on  the  "  overland  route 
to  India."  And  though  I  may  possibly  reach  you  as  soon  as 
a  letter,  it  appears  advisable  to  state  in  writing  my  thoughts 
respecting  one  or  two  very  important  points  in  your  communica- 
tion. 

Accompanied  by  many  kind  expressions  of  approbation,  which 
I  highly  value  on  account  of  having  emanated  from  a  body  of  men 
whose  sole  object  in  undertaking  the  responsibility  and  labor  of 
the  Direction  must  have  been  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  among  the  heathen,  I  find 
the  intimation  that  the  Directors  are  restricted  in  their  power  of 
aiding  plans  connected  only  remotely  with  the  spread  of  the 
gospel.  And  it  is  added,  also,  that  even  though  certain  very 
formidable  obstacles  should  prove  surmountable,  the  "financial 
circumstances  of  the  Society  are  not  such  as  to  afford  any 
ground  of  hope  that  it  would  be,  within  any  definite  period, 
in  a  position  to  enter  upon  untried,  remote,  and  difficult  fields 
of  labor." 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  these  statements  imply  a  resolution  on 
the  part  of  the  gentlemen  now  in  the  Direction,  to  devote  the 
decreasing  income  of  the  Society  committed  to  their  charge  to 
parts  of  the  world  of  easy  access,  and  in  which  the  missionaries 
may  devote  their  entire  time  and  energies  to  the  dissemination  of 
the  truths  of  the  gospel  with  reasonable  hopes  of  speedy  success. 
This,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  evinces  a  sincere  desire  to  perform 
their  duty  faithfully  to  their  constituents,  to  the  heathen,  and  to 
our  Lord  and  Master.  Yet  while  still  retaining  that  full  convic- 
tion of  the  purity  of  their  motives,  which  no  measure  adopted 
during  the  sixteen  years  of  my  connection  with  the  Society  has 
for  a  moment  disturbed,  I  feel  constrained  to  view  "  the  untried, 
remote,  and  difficult  fields,"  to  which  I  humbly  yet  firmly  believe 
God  has  directed  my  steps,  with  a  resolution  widely  different  from 


APPENDIX.  603 

that  whicli  their  words  imply.  As  our  aims  and  purposes  will  now 
appear  in  some  degree  divergent — on  their  part  from  a  sort  of 
paralysis  caused  by  financial  decay,  and  on  mine  from  the  simple 
continuance  of  an  old  determination  to  devote  my  life  and  my  all 
to  the  service  of  Christ,  in  whatever  way  He  may  lead  me  in  inter- 
tropical Africa — it  seems  natural,  while  yet  without  the  remotest 
idea  of  support  from  another  source,  to  give  some  of  the  reasons 
for  differing  with  those  with  whom  I  have  hitherto  been  so  happily 
connected. 

It  remains  vividly  on  my  memory  that  some  twenty  years  ago, 
while  musing  how  I  might  spend  my  life  so  as  best  to  promote  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  from  the 
cumulative  nature  of  gospel  influence  the  outskirts  even  of  the 
Empire  of  China  presented  the  most  inviting  field  for  evangelical 
effort  in  the  world.  I  was  also  much  averse  to  being  connected 
with  any  Society,  having  a  strong  desire  to  serve  Christ  in  circum- 
stances which  would  free  my  services  from  all  professional  aspect. 
But  the  solicitations  of  friends  in  whose  judgment  I  had  confidence 
led  to  my  offers  of  service  to  the  London  Missionary  Society.  The 
"  Opium  War"  was  then  adduced  as  a  reason  why  that  remote, 
diflacult,  and  untried  field  of  labor  should  stand  in  abeyance  before 
the  interior  of  Africa,  to  which,  in  opposition  to  my  own  judgment, 
I  was  advised  to  proceed.  I  did  not,  however,  go  with  any  sort  of 
reluctance,  for  I  had  great  respect  for  the  honored  men  by  whom 
the  advice  was  given,  and  unbounded  confidence  in  the  special 
providence  of  Him  who  has  said,  "  Commit  thy  way  unto  the 
I<ord,  etc.  In  all  thy  ways  acknowledge  Him,  and  He  shall  direct 
thy  steps."  I  was  contented  with  the  way  in  which  I  had  been 
led,  and  happy  in  the  prospect  of  being  made  instrumental  in 
winning  some  souls  to  Christ. 

The  Directors  wished  me  to  endeavor  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the 
tribes  north  of  the  Kuruman.  Having  remained  at  that  station 
sufficient  time  only  to  recruit  my  oxen,  I  proceeded  in  the  direction 
indicated,  and  while  learning  the  language  I  visited  the  Bakhatla, 
Bakwains,  Bangwaketse,  and  Bamangwato  tribes,  in  order  to  select 
a  suitable  locality  for  a  mission,  in  the  hope  of  succeeding  in 
making  a  second  Kuruman  or  central  station,  which  would,  by 
God's  blessing,  influence  a  large  circumference.  I  chose  Mabotsa, 
ftnd  no  one  who  has  seen  that  countrv  since  has  said  the  choice 


504  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

f^as  injudicious.  The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Philip  alone  was  opposed  to 
this  plan  on  account  of  solicitude  for  my  safety,  "  because  Mosili- 
katse  was  behind  the  Cushan  mountains  thirsting  for  the  blood  of 
the  first  white  man  who  should  fall  into  his  hands.  And  no  man 
would  in  his  sober  senses  build  his  house  on  the  crater  of  a 
volcano."  Having  removed  to  the  Bak wains  of  Sechele,  I  spent 
some  of  the  happiest  years  of  my  life  in  missionary  labor,  and 
was  favored  in  Avitnessing  a  gratifying  measure  of  success  in  the 
spread  of  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel.  The  good  seed  was  widely 
sown,  and  is  not  lost.  It  will  yet  bear  fruit,  though  I  may  not 
live  to  see  it.  In  the  pursuit  of  my  plan  I  tried  to  plant  among 
the  tribes  around  by  means  of  native  teachers  and  itineracies. 
We  have  heard  again  and  again  of  a  "  preparatory  work  going 
on"  in  India,  but  who  ever  heard  of  such  in  Africa  ?  A  village 
of  600  or  800  may  have  one,  or  even  two  missionaries,  with  school- 
masters and  schoolmistresses,  and  the  nearest  population,  fifty  or 
one  hundred  miles  off,  cannot  feel  their  influence.  Believers  will 
not,  iu  many  cases,  go  beyond  the  circle  of  their  own  friends  and 
acquaintances. 

I  was  happy  in  having  two  worthy  men  of  color  to  aid  me  in 
diffusing  a  knowledge  of  Christ  among  the  Eastern  tribes,  but  the 
Boers  forbade  us  to  preach  unto  the  Gentiles  that  they  might  be 
saved.  My  attention  was  turned  to  Sebituane  by  Sechele  at  the 
very  time  this  happened,  but  I  had  no  intention  of  leaving  the 
Bakwains.  Droughts  succeeded,  and  these,  with  perpetual  threats 
and  annoyances  from  the  Boers,  so  completely  distracted  the  mind 
of  the  tribe  that  our  operations  were  almost  suspended.  It  is  well 
known  that  food  for  the  mind  has  but  little  savor  for  starving 
stomachs.  The  famine,  and  the  unmistakable  determination  of 
the  Boers  to  enslave  my  people,  at  last  made  me  look  to  the  north 
seriously.  There  was  no  precipitancy.  Letters  went  to  and  from 
India  respecting  my  project  before  resolving  to  leave,  and  I  went 
at  last,  after  being  obliged  to  send  my  family  to  Kuruman  in 
order  to  be  out  of  the  way  of  a  threatened  attack  of  the  Boers. 
When  we  reached  Lake  '  Ngami,  about  which  so  much  has  been 
said,  I  immediately  asked  for  guides  to  take  me  to  Sebituane,  be- 
cause to  form  a  settlement  in  which  the  gospel  might  be  planted 
was  the  great  object  for  which  I  had  come.  Guides  were  refused, 
and  the  Bayeiye  were  prevented  from  ferrying  me  across    the 


i 


APPENDIX.  505 

Zouga.  I  made  a  raft,  but  after  working  in  the  water  for  hours 
it  would  not  carry  me.  (I  have  always  been  thankful,  since  I 
knew  how  alligators  abound  there,  that  I  was  not  then  killed  by 
one.)  Next  year  affairs  were  not  improved  at  Kolobeng,  and 
while  attempting  the  north  again  fever  drove  us  back.  In  both 
that  and  the  following  year  I  took  my  family  with  me  in  order  to 
obviate  the  loss  of  time  which  returning  for  them  would  occasion. 
The  Boers  subsequently,  by  relieving  me  of  all  my  goods,  freed 
me  from  the  labor  of  returning  to  Kolobeng  at  all. 

Of  the  circumstances  attending  our  arrival  at  Sebituane's,  and 
the  project  of  opening  up  a  path  to  the  coast,  you  are  already  so 
fully  aware,  from  having  examined  and  awarded  your  approbation, 
I  need  scarcely  allude  to  it.  Double  the  time  has  been  expended 
to  that  which  I  anticipated,  but  as  it  chiefly  arose  from  sickness, 
the  loss  of  time  was  unavoidable.  The  same  cause  produced 
interruptions  in  preaching  the  gospel — as  would  have  been  the 
case  had  I  been  indisposed  anywhere  else. 

The  foregoing  short  notices  of  all  the  plans  which  I  can  bring 
to  my  recollection  since  my  arrival  in  Africa  lead  me  to  the 
question,  which  of  the  plans  it  is  that  the  Directors  particularize 
when  they  say  they  are  restricted  in  their  power  of  aiding  plans 
only  remotely  connected  with  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  It  cannot 
be  the  last  surely,  for  I  had  their  express  approval  before  leaving 
Cape  Town,  and  they  yield  to  none  in  admiration  of  the  zeal  with 
which  it  has  been  executed.     Then  which  is  it  ? 

As  it  cannot  be  meant  to  apply  in  the  way  of  want  of  funds 
deciding  the  suspension  of  operations  which  would  make  the 
connection  remote  enough  with  the  spread  of  the  gospel  by  us,  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  phraseology,  and  therefore  trust 
that  the  difficulty  may  be  explained.  The  difficulties  are  men- 
tioned in  no  captious  spirit,  though,  from  being  at  a  loss  as  to  the 
precise  meaning  of  the  terms,  I  may  appear  to  be  querulous.  I  am 
not  conscious  of  any  diminution  of  the  respect  and  affection  with 
whkh  I  have  always  addressed  you.     I  am,  yours  affectionately, 

David  Livucgston. 


43 


506  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

No.  IV. 

LORD  CLARENDON^S  LETTER  TO  SEKELETU. 

JVom  The  Earl  of  Clarendon,  Principal  Secretary  of  State 
for   Foreign   Affairs  of  Her  Majesty,  the    Queen  of   Great 
Britain,   to   our   esteemed   Friend  Sekeletu,    Chief  of  the 
Mahololo,  in  South  Central  Africa. 

The  Queen  our  Sovereign  and  the  British  Government  have 
learned  with  much  pleasure  from  her  Majesty's  servant,  Dr.  Liv- 
ingstone, the  kind  manner  in  which  you  co-operated  with  him  in 
his  endeavors  to  find  a  path  from  your  country  to  the  sea  on  the 
West  Coast,  and  again,  when  he  was  following  the  course  of  the 
river  Zambesi  from  your  town  to  the  Eastern  Coast,  by  furnishing 
him  on  each  occasion  with  canoes,  provisions,  oxen,  and  men,  free 
of  expense ;  and  we  were  pleased  to  hear  that  you,  your  elders 
and  people,  are  all  anxious  to  have  direct  intercourse  with  the 
English  nation,  and  to  have  your  country  open  to  commerce  and 
civilization. 

Ours  is  a  great  commercial  and  Christian  nation,  and  we  desire 
to  live  in  peace  with  all  men.  We  wish  others  to  sleep  soundly 
as  well  as  ourselves ;  and  we  hate  the  trade  in  slaves.  We  are  all 
the  children  of  one  common  Father ;  and  the  slave-trade  being 
hateful  to  Him,  we  give  you  a  proof  of  our  desire  to  promote  your 
prosperity  by  joining  you  in  the  attempt  to  open  up  your  country 
to  peaceful  commerce.  With  this  view  the  Queen  sends  a  small 
steam-vessel  to  sail  along  the  river  Zambesi,  which  you  know  and 
agreed  to  be  the  best  pathway  for  conveying  merchandise,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  exploring  which  Dr.  Livingstone  left  you  the  last 
time.  This  is,  as  all  men  know,  "  God's  pathway ;"  and  you  will, 
we  trust,  do  all  that  you  can  to  keep  it  a  free  pathway  for  all 
nations,  and  let  no  one  be  molested  when  traveling  on  the  river. 

We  are  a  manufacturing  people,  and  make  all  the  articles  which 
you  see  and  hear  of  as  coming  from  the  white  men.  We  purchase 
cotton  and  make  it  into  cloth ;  and  if  you  will  cultivate  cotton 
and  other  articles,  we  are  willing  to  buy  them.  No  matter  how 
much  you  may  produce,  our  people  will  purchase  it  all.  Let  it  be 
known  among  all  y^vr  people,  and  among  all  the  surrounding 


APPENDIX,  507 

tribes,  that  the  English  are  the  friends  and  promoters  of  all  lawful 
commerce,  but  that  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  slave-trade  and 
elave-hunting. 

We  assure  you,  your  elders  and  people,  of  our  friendship,  and 
we  hope  that  the  kindly  feelings  which  you  entertain  toward  the 
English  may  be  continued  between  our  children's  children ;  and, 
as  we  have  derived  all  our  greatness  from  the  Divine  religion  we 
received  from  Heaven,  it  will  be  well  if  you  consider  it  carefully 
when  any  of  our  people  talk  to  you  about  it. 

We  hope  that  Her  Majesty's  servants  and  people  will  be  able  to 
visit  you  from  time  to  time  in  order  to  cement  our  friendship, 
and  to  promote  mutual  welfare ;  and,  in  the  meantime,  we  recom- 
mend you  to  the  protection  of  the  Almighty. 

Written  at  London,  the  nineteenth  day  of  February,  1858. 
Your  affectionate  firiend, 

Clarendon. 

Letters  similar  to  the  above  were  sent  to  many  of  the  other 
chiefe  known  to  Livingstone. 


No.V. 

PUBLIC  HONOKS  AWARDED  TO  DR.  LIVINGSTONE. 

A  complete  list  of  these  honors  is  not  easy  to  construct ;  the 
f  >llowing  may  be  regarded  as  embracing  the  chief,  but  it  does  not 
embrace  mere  addresses  presented  to  him,  of  which  there  were 
many: 

1850.  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  London  award  him  the 
Royal  Donation  of  25  guineas,  placed  by  her  Majesty  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Council  (Silver  Chronometer). 

1854.  French  Geographical  Society  award  a  Silver  Medal. 

1854.  University  of  Glasgow  confer  degree  of  LL.D. 

1855.  Royal  Geographical   Society   of  London   award   Patron's 

Gold  Medal. 
1857.  French  Geographical  Society  award  annual  prize  for  the 

most  important  geographical  discovery. 
1857.  Freedom  of  city  of  London,  in  box  of  value  of  fifty  guineas, 

as  a  testimonial  in  recognition  of  his  zealous  and  perse- 


508  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE, 

vering  exertions  in  the  important  discoveries  he  has 
made  in  Africa,  by  which  geographical,  geological,  and 
tiieir  kindred  sciences  have  been  advanced ;  facts  ascer- 
tained that  may  extend  the  trade  and  commerce  of  thia 
country,  and  hereafter  secure  to  the  native  tribes  of  the 
vast  African  continent  the  blessings  of  knowledge  and 
civilization. 

1857.  Freedom  of  city  of  Glasgow,  presented  in  testimony  of 
admiration  of  his  undaunted  intrepidity  and  fortitude 
amid  difficulties,  privations,  and  dangers,  during  a  period 
of  many  years,  while  traversing  an  extensive  region  in 
the  interior  of  Africa,  hitherto  unexplored  by  Europeans, 
and  of  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  his  services,  ex- 
tending to  the  fostering  of  commerce,  the  advancement 
of  civilization,  and  the  diffusion  of  Christianity  among 
heathen  nations. 

J857.  Freedom  of  city  of  Edinburgh,  of  Dundee,  and  many  otheT 
towns. 

J 857.  Corresponding  Member  of  American  Geographical  and 
Statistical  Society,  New  York. 

1857.  Corresponding  Member  of  Royal  Geographical  Society  of 
London. 

1857.  Corresponding  Member  of  Geographical  Society  of  Paris. 

1857.  Corresponding  Member  of  the  K.  K.  Geographicalv  Society 
of  Vienna. 

1857.  The  Faculty  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  Glasgow 
"  elect  that  worthy,  eminent,  and  learned  Surgeon  and 
Naturalist,  David  Livingstone,  LL.D.,  to  be  an  Hon- 
orary Fellow." 

1857.  Medal  awarded  by  the  Universal  Society  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Arts  and  Industry. 

1857.   University  of  Oxford  confer  degree  of  D.C.L. 

1857.  Elected  F.K.S. 

1858.  Appointed   Commander   of  Zambesi   Expedition   and   her 

Majesty's  Consul  at  Tette,  Quilimane,  and  Senna. 

1872.  Gold  Medal  awarded  by  Italian  Geographical  Society. 

1874.  A  memoir  of  Livingstone  having  been  read  by  the  Secre- 
tary at  a  meeting  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society, 
cordially  recognizing  his  merit,  the  whole  assembly — 
a  very  large  one — by  rising,  paid  a  last  tribute  of  respect 
to  his  memory. — Lancet,  7th  March,  1874. 

Any  omissions  in  this  list  notified  to  the  author  will  be  supplied 
in  future  editions. 

Printed  in  the  Uait«d  States  of  Anerica  21 


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Personal  ii-^-  ^*" 


.■Tyi.-r.^^.?if^ 


